Visibility is everything

I’m sure many of us would agree that the most valuable commodity in the world today is information. After all, the world has developed a vast and expansive communications network for the sole purpose of the trading in and accessing of information. You guessed it, it’s the internet!

By now, many of us have heard of the Internet of Things and the principle of networking any number of devices and systems to assist us in our everyday lives. The same thing is happening in the world of processing and heavy industry in general. As we compete for each hard-earned dollar in the global marketplace, more than ever before companies are looking internally for ways to dilute their product costs and increase profit margins. One of the key areas of focus should be their energy costs.

This leads me to the concept of ‘pervasive sensing’, referring to the ability to measure and detect anywhere and everywhere within your plant. The ability to access the right information required to empower people in the organisation to make educated decisions about how to run and improve your process. I hear you saying, though, that this sounds like a costly exercise - and that adding measurement points to your existing system means huge capital outlay. Extra cabling, extra racking or trenching, not to mention the extra I/O modules and cabinets. Don’t do it this way, is all I can say.

With today’s wireless field instrumentation technologies, you no longer need to incur these expenses to implement new measurements in the field. WirelessHART is a robust, self-organising, self-healing meshing technology for wireless battery-powered field instruments which eliminates the need for cabling, trenching and, for the most part, extra I/O for your control system. And when I say reliable, I am talking signal reliability of over 99%.

Did you know that there are companies out there that are already doing this today? Major food and beverage manufacturers in the Asia-Pacific region implementing extra wireless measurement points to gauge and balance water usage, raw materials per batch and even to bolster safety systems. Mine sites doing mass balances on their utilities used on site to curb losses due to leaks or wastage. Major refineries utilising remote monitoring to optimise their steam systems and curb previously unseen losses. We are now even seeing major new plant developments making allowances for and designing in these pervasive sensing measurements to ensure they have maximum visibility of their energy consumption on site.

They have all seen the benefit these new wireless technologies can add. It is now more cost effective than ever to deploy new measurements in your plant or process. Energy consumption is one area where genuine savings can be, and are being, realised. However, if you think laterally and apply the technology correctly, you can address areas like safety, asset reliability (imagine smart, self-diagnosing pumps for instance) or environmental compliance - to name just a few.

So I guess the way I see it is this: if you or your company are not actively investigating or implementing these technologies and strategies, then now is the time to start. Other companies are already doing this and realising the savings. If they happen to be a direct competitor, they may just be gaining the upper hand in the marketplace.

Steffen Terreblanche has 20 years’ experience in instrumentation, working as a service technician within the food and beverage, metals and mining and oil and gas industries. Steffen joined Emerson Process Management in 2010 as a sales engineer and has recently taken on the role of National Wireless Specialist.