Honeywell to maintain control systems for world's largest coal-to-liquids plant

Honeywell Process Solutions (HPS) has announced a five-year agreement to provide comprehensive services and support for the control systems of the world’s largest coal-to-liquids (CTL) plant through its new Assurance 360 Services program.

HPS will support Sasol’s synthetic fuels and chemicals complex in Secunda, South Africa, providing diagnostic system monitoring, automated incident management, technical assistance, parts management, site-based support and ongoing system upgrades for the facility.

The Secunda facility converts coal into synthetic crude oil to produce fuels and a broad range of chemicals. It is one of the largest users of Honeywell automation technologies, which are used to control and monitor operations.

“Assurance 360 is a game changer for services support in the industrial processing industry,” said John Rudolph, vice president of Honeywell Process Solutions. “Performance metrics are defined at the beginning of the program and the results directly impact the contract. In essence, the plant’s success is our success. Assurance 360 will give Sasol peace of mind knowing that its critical control systems will not only be maintained as with traditional service agreements, but also keep them updated and supported.”

Honeywell’s Assurance 360 services are multiyear cooperative service arrangements to maintain, support and optimise the performance of Honeywell control systems regardless of the industry or size of operations. These services transform how plant assets are managed, focusing on system performance and outcomes while allowing users to focus on operations. Honeywell performance specialists help reduce unplanned events, resolve problems faster and improve performance to help create a more efficient plant. Industrial customers, such as Sasol’s Secunda plant, are able to customise the level of service they need or want, based on their requirements.

HPS has provided process automation technology and field equipment to many of Sasol’s facilities for more than 35 years, including the initial installations at the then Sasol II and Sasol III complexes in Secunda, South Africa.

In addition to HPS technologies, Honeywell’s UOP, which licenses technology to the refining, petrochemicals, gas processing and major manufacturing industries, has supplied technology and ongoing support to Sasol Synfuels since 1980. Sasol has licensed a number of technologies, including the UOP Benfield process to treat syngas and the UOP CCR Platforming process to produce high-octane gasoline blending components.

Assurance 360 is an approach to service management that offers two levels of support to meet different user needs:

• Assurance 360 Optima offers dedicated resources for preventive and corrective maintenance, replacement parts in the event of a failure, system updates, cybersecurity tools and servers, and predefined risk sharing if the site experiences either a loss of control or loss of view due to covered system failures.
• Assurance 360 Performa provides oversight on all aspects of system management with a focus on meeting or exceeding performance metrics through visualisation, planning and targeted support when needed. Honeywell performance experts help and guide site personnel in preventive and corrective maintenance tasks as well as hardware and software upgrades.