2010 IEEE International Conference on Control Applications

Part of 2010 IEEE Multi-Conference on Systems and Control

Yokohama, Japan, September 8-10, 2010

Intelligent and Innovative Monitoring of Water

Treatment Plant in Large Gas Refinery
Amir Firoozshahi, Member, IEEE, Islamic Azad University, Damavand branch, Tehran, Iran, afshahi@gmail.com
Seyeon Kim, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, South Korea, alishakim0907@gmail.com
ABSTRACT- A PLC can communicate through its inputs and
output signals with the plant. The capabilities of PLCs have
developed over the years, with reliability, performance, and
operational. Developing monitoring in Automation Control
System is a major industrial concern since those systems are
more and more complex and involved in many safety critical
application fields. The Automation system is being widely used
in Power, Oil and Gas, and Petrochemicals for monitoring,
advance process control and various other functions.
Automation system is operated either in single mode and or it is
interfaced with other systems such as PLC, SCADA, and Etc
for enhanced functionality. Water treatment plants have to
provide good water quality and at the same time low
operational costs. Owing to various physical, chemical and
biological interactions water treatment processes are often
difficult to handle and reliable predictions for the course of
processes are difficult to obtain. This paper focuses on an
innovative and intelligent monitoring system for Water
Treatment Plant that has been successfully designed,
implemented and commissioned for large Gas Refinery after
case study in international standards.
Keywords- control system; industrial automation; water
treatment plant; PLC; monitoring; automation system;

I.

INTRODUCTION

Most production lines use PLC (Programmable Logic

Controllers) to connect with computers for monitoring every
parameters and status. PLCs are extensively used in industrial
control because they are easy to erection, very flexible in
application and economical. The control of all plant has been
carried out by using computers. PLCs have made it possible
to accurately control big industrial factories with lower
installation expenses, wiring than required with standard
relays, drum switches, pneumatic timers, and so on. The
programmability feature causes rapid and comfortable
changes in PLC software to meet the changing needs of the
plant without the need for expensive and time consuming
rewiring. The automation of process control, machines and
production lines has resulted in the ever-increasing stability
of quality, speed and cost savings within complex processes.
Users have come to expect high quality in the produced
goods they use, but for a control designer, these are the
competitions that make the profession interesting. In the

978-1-4244-5363-4/10/$26.00 2010 IEEE

recent years, with the fast changes on industries and

information technologies, some traditional bulk electronic
appliances have to be monitored for a long time.
The use of PLC with power electronics in electric
machines applications has been introduced in the
manufacturing automation [1], [2]. It offers advantages such
as lower voltage drop when turned on and the ability to
control motors [3]. Several production lines and factories use
PLC in automation processes to reduce production expenses
and increase reliability, facilities, availabilities and quality
[4][5]. Other applications comprise machine tools with
better accuracy Computerized Numerical Control due to the
use of PLC [5].
The amalgamated PCS can be broken down into five
heterogeneous categories to facilitate security analysis as
System data, Architecture, Security administration,
Networks and Platforms [6]. The application of neural
networks and genetic algorithms in drinking water treatment
has shown for a ceramic membrane microfiltration plant [7].
In some project for control of a chemical WTP, a cascade
controller is executed to control the reactor core temperature
by controlling the flow rate of cooling water. Sensor setup
and master control are also comprehended for complete
automation of plant [8],[9]. A usual vacuum system in water
plant was taken as an example and its principle was analyzed.
The suitable PLC was selected [10].
The Innovative, modernization, design, integration,
development and implementation of control system for a
DCS-based (Distributed Control System) tank gauging
system for the Large Tank Farm is described [11]. The main
achievement of this prototype in [12] is a versatile framework
able to deal with different plant configurations, based on the
object-oriented paradigm and on rule-based reasoning.
It has the reference function on the modernization of
water plant management. The paper in [12] presents the
development and implementation of a Real-Time Expert
System for the control and supervision of a wastewater
treatment pilot plant with biological removal of organic
matter and nutrients.
In this paper a target to design, develop, and implement
industrial control and monitoring system for automation of a
water treatment plant is achieved. The SWIP "Sea Water
Intake Plant" has been conceived for the water supply of
large gas refinery, where it is primarily used as cooling
medium for both process and utility units. The seawater is
pumped by three pumps mounted in parallel and all three
pumps are piped into a common manifold. The three filters

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are installed in parallel on the common manifold to perform

the main filtration of the seawater. It also consists of
screening units, surge vessels and other equipments. The
intelligent industrial automation systems control and monitor
necessary signals for different section of plant such as:
Pumps, Valves, Screening, Surge Vessel, etc. by PLC. This
monitoring system will be conducted all normal field
operations by staff located in the control room. The main
item directly controlled and monitored by the control system
is the running of the main pumps, the start-up and shut-down
of pumps and associated motor operated valves and flow
control.
II.

PHILOSOPHY OF CONFIGURATION AND MONITORING

SYSTEM

The control system has been designed on a PLC basis,

with all normal field operations being conducted by staff
located in the control room. The monitoring system provides
operators with three possibilities of operation and control i.e.:
Automatic operation
Remote Manual operation
Local Manual operation
A. Operation philosophy
The Screens can be operated in automatic mode or
manually.

Automatic operation
The screen ranker and band speeds are controlled on
the water level difference over the primary and
secondary screens, and on a timer signal, in this
mode. The screens go into low speed operation on
reaching a pre-set low value of level difference (L1)
of the water upstream and downstream the screen.
When the level difference over the primary and
secondary screens is exceeding a pre-set high value
of level difference (L2), the screens start operating on
high speed.
At values lower than water level difference value L1,
the screens are stopped. In this situation, a timer will
control the operation. After a certain elapsed time,
the screens start operating on low speed. Both
operation time and time delay are adjustable.

Normal operation
Three screening bays are normally in operation. Each
screening bay can be isolated and emptied for
maintenance purposes. A minimum of two bays is in
operation.

Manual operation
Each screen can be started and stopped by pushing
the start/stop button locally as well as in the SWI
control room.

Each secondary screen has its own wash water system.

When starting the secondary screen, the wash water system
will start immediately, both in automatic mode and in manual
mode. When the secondary screen stops running, the wash
water system remains in operation for several minutes for

post-cleaning of the screen. The PLC is chosen to provide the

user with safe, efficient, coast effective and reliable
equipment of proven design. The PLC has a dual redundant
architecture to avoid common mode failure points anywhere
within the system at a level higher than I/O interface cards.
Control and monitoring equipment is designed for continuous
use with a minimum life cycle of 25 years under all
applicable operating and environmental conditions.
B. Main Control Room
All control activities and monitoring of plant has been
conducted from Sea Water Intake control room .It is possible
to monitor/activated some control and other status (alarm)
signals from Large Gas Refinery Control Room.
Marshalling/system cabinets are located in an electrically
non-hazardous area, this area named auxiliary room
(Technical Room).

III.

CONFIGURATION OF MONITORING SYSTEM

A. Operator facilities
Display stations present information to operators in both
graphical and tabular forms, integrating information from
other sources such as refinery DCS, packages etc. as required
in a uniform manner. Two operator stations are designed for
control and monitoring of SWI plant in control room.
Information processing facilities included such as following:
1) Printing of alarm/event logs, reports screen
dumps etc.
2) Alarm annunciation and logging;
3) Control interaction;
4) Event logging.
5) System status indication.
Operator console is designed to take into consideration
the housing of other operational needs such as telephones,
public address microphones and related miscellaneous items.
Simulation and test facilities is provided, which enable an
authorized operator to isolate, test and calibrate sensor loops.
Override and inhibit facilities is provided as required and is
enabled via dedicated displays on the control system work
stations in strict accordance with permit-to-work procedures.
Activation of overrides or inhibits is logged and annunciated
at these work stations.
The Operator station software server interfaces with the
plant through the Automation system using Modbus plus
Protocol via Interface PIC card which has been installed in
Industrial PC (Operator Station). A process data table has
been produced which listed PLC variables (shows process
variables with PLC addresses and read/write status), HIM
(Human Machine Interface) software variable tags (shows
units and ranges of variables) and display of variables (shows
how each variable will be displayed).
B. Designed Graphic Displays
Process was presented to operators through HIM screens
(graphic pages) and operators navigate through graphic pages
by using the keyboard and mouse. Figure 1. shows pages

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relations. In this design, the following pages were presented

to operators:

We designed several facilities in each pages. For instance,

pages have following abilities:

Sending ON/OFF command to pumps

Sending ON/OFF command to filters
Sending OPEN/CLOSE command to MOVs
Monitoring the values of Pressure, Level and
Temperature
Monitoring the value of flow transmitter
Monitoring status of pumps and filters
Monitoring Fault position for pumps and filters
Monitoring Alarm for each objects in its related
page

Beside we can see the page for main pump station in

Figure 3. with Pump control sub display.

Figure 1. Displays relations with main page

1) Menu Page:
The menu page feather buttons to display all pages such
as process pages, trend pages, log in log out the Operator
station, etc. However graphic pages are linked together, so
operators can move easily between pages without needing to
redisplay the menu page.
2) Process Displays:
In design specification document, we defined all objects
with their characteristics in graphic pages according to P&ID
drawings and end user requirements. We have several
process displays for operators. The main pages are as
follows:
Seawater Pumps phase 1
Seawater Pumps phase 2&3
SW Distribution & Manifold Phase 1
SW Distribution & Manifold Phase 2&3
Screening plant
Chlorination
Fire water Pump

Figure 3. Main pump page

3) Hardware overview page:

This page will monitor hardware and shows alarms of
hardware in hardware system. Figure 4. show s HW page.

You can see the display for Seawater Pumps in Figure 2.

Figure 4. Hardware ststus display

Figure 2. Seawater main Pumps Display

4) Trend pages:
A trend graph will display changes in different variables
such as PT, FT& LT on the line. Variables, which must be
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analyzed, will be assigned trend tags and logged in history

files. Trends will be displayed in real time on a separate
trends page, but the variables will be logged continuously, so
operators will be able to view past trends as well as current
trends. I prepared all variables which need to have trends and
assigned trend tags for them. Figure 5. shows trend display in
process display.

8) Legend page:
This page will define the useful information for new
operators and define any objects and colors which used in
monitoring software.
IV.

INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION AND I/O INTERFACE

A. System design description overview

For the Industrial automation system of all major
equipment, the following preliminary control philosophy is
adopted:
a)

The control panels of all major equipment are

located in the SWI control room.
b) The process control is based on an automatic
operation, and on PLC control of each main
equipment component or package.
c) For some equipment items, local manual basic
control is possible by using start/stop buttons,
located near the equipment involved.
Process control data exchanging requirements between
the SWI (Sea Water Intake) control room and any other
refinery control room DCS are unknown at this moment.
Figure 6. shows overview of control system
configuration.

Figure 5. Trend display in process display

5) Alarm page:
Equipment that often has fault conditions are trigger
alarms, for example any faults on pumps and filters. Alarms
are displayed on a separate page. A summary of alarms is
logged to a file and displayed on the alarm summary page.
Analog alarms are triggered depending on the value of the
variable and definition of HH, H, L and LL status of variable
which we assign during configuration. Digital alarms are
triggered when Fault signals of pumps and filters are
activated and also when the filters were off but output
manifold valves were open.
6) Report pages:
A report will be run on operator request and logging for
example Pumps status, PT and LT values to a file and
operator can view report page by selecting button on the
menu page.
7) Security principle:
The operator will enter a password and could monitor all
plant and acknowledge alarms. We classified users as either
operators or supervisors, with access to a subset of
commands by the use of passwords and user privileges. The
supervisor could access to system commands for example
on/off pumps, filters. The plant will be split into two distinct
areas:

Area one: Main plant operation. This gives the

user access to the menu page and all process and
alarm pages.
Area two: This reserves areas for administrative
operations such as creating new user.

Figure 6. Control system overview

B. Control System Interfacing

1) MCC(Motor Control Center) Interface
To eliminate the need for control and safety systems
interfacing with switchgear, a suitable interposing and
termination point is provided.
2) Package Interfacing
There are two packages in this plant, Air compressor and
chlorination packages which supplied by in depended PLC
system. Some suitable signals such as stop/running status,
alarms and other limited signals are repeated to the main
central PLC via discrete cables from packages PLC.

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3) Refinery System Interface

The interconnection with the refinery DCS is made
through a redundant serial link which is made by 2 fiber
optical cables using MODBUS protocol. Some of the process
input signals status to the PLC system is repeated to the DCS
of different phases of onshore refinery.
The following data (as a minimum) need to be
interchanged.
a) From SWI PLC to DCS:
Remote control permissive
Status of pumps, MOVS, chlorination
Flow & Pressure per pump
Total flow & pressure
Level in SWI basin
Auto/Manual per pump
Screening plant general alarm
b) From DCS to SWI PLC:
MOV open/close commands
Pump motor start/stop commands
Selection of duty stand by per pump
All detail information is shown by suitable symbols on
P&IDs drawings.

System, and Advanced Control such as multi-valuable

control scheme for more profitable operation and control.
Several projects have already been completed successfully.
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[1]

[2]

[3]
[4]

[5]
[6]

[7]

V.

CONCLUSION

[8]

All engineers have been trained for any modification,

development, expansion and maintenance. The Monitoring
System has been successfully designed, installed,
commissioned and started up. All features accessed.
Operators are working by this system easily and satisfied.
Successful experimental results were obtained from the
previously described scheme indicating that the PLC can be
used in monitoring systems with water treatment plant. The
monitoring system of the plant controlled by PLC proves its
high saved operation and intelligent facilities for operator.
We saved about %46 cabling cost because of networking.
Also reliability of control system is high because of
redundancy in several levels. Despite the reliable of the
control method used, this system presents:

[9]
[10]
[11]

[12]
[13]

Full parameter display for supervisor and operators.

Full automatic and intelligent operation in all
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Very good final product by good control
Higher efficiency
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control tool in industrial plants.
This project is aimed at monitor and operation
improvement by utilizing innovative Monitoring and control
system in WTP. Through reduction of the Process Alarm
and Manipulation by operator, we aim to stabilize the
process control. This work will also be much helpful for
installing operation-support system such as Advanced Alarm
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