All of the Open Process Automation Standard’s (O-PAS) plug-and-play capabilities make life easier, which is what the Open Process Automation Forum (OPAF) pursued from the start.
“Sixteen years ago, Don Bartusiak began talking about using open architectures and standards to make the changes we wanted, primarily gaining interoperability for process controls to address growing obsolescence in increasingly large and complex processes. Seven years ago, we successfully completed our open process automation (OPA) proof of concept (PoC), including concepts for distributed control nodes (DCN) that could swap microprocessors in and out to match required operating loads,” said Dave DeBari, OPA technical team leader at ExxonMobil, during his presentation at the ARC Industry Forum on Feb 10-13 in Orlando, Fla.
Also see: AI, APL highlight ARC Forum
“We also used these interoperable and interchangeable process control technologies in our OPA Lighthouse Project, which was packed up and moved after factory acceptance testing (FAT) last August, and is now operating as the first commercial instance of the OPA architecture at our resin-finishing plant in Baton Rouge, La. We ripped out the plant’s former DCS. There’s no piece of it left operating onsite. It’s gone, so there’s really no going back.”
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The OPA Lighthouse’s process control applications are managing about 100 control loops and 1,000 I/O. The system was fully powered up and finished hot cutover tasks on Nov. 8. A cold cutover was completed on Nov. 17, and the commercialized, OPA-guided application began making product and generating revenue for ExxonMobil the next day (Figure 1).
“We’ve done it. It works, and it isn’t that hard to do,” exulted DeBari. “The Lighthouse plant uses Version 2.1 of O-PAS, and we completed a long and through FAT on Aug. 28 to make sure it was safe and reliable because this plant must be able to stay online and continue making products for our customers.
“Using orchestration, we can take a controller computer out of the box, put it on a DIN rail, and get it talking to I/O on the O-PAS connectivity framework (OCF) network in less than 20 minutes. This includes setup and instantiation, and adding the operating system, applications, control logic and security. This would take hours to a day with a regular PLC, and days or a week with a traditional DCS. We estimate that we could go from blank hardware to a running control system with full settings in about eight hours, just by running scripts instead of doing these tasks manually. This is how plug-and-play becomes a reality.”
DeBari reported that operators at the Baton Rouge facility have been getting used to their new OPA system’s tools and generally appreciate them. “Our operations people are still our toughest critics and best assets. They found some faults we hadn’t thought of, and are giving us good feedback,” explained DeBari. “Most operators in brownfield facilities like the controls and tools they’ve always had. So, the best news about O-PAS at Lighthouse is that within three weeks, the operators reported liking it, and began telling each other about tips and tricks for using it, such as easier ways to make process-run changes. Since then, they’ve settled into a normal cycles for making product and initiating process enhancements.”
Inside sales
Even beyond operators sharing tips at the Baton Rouge facility, O-PAS is garnering interest and inquiries from other ExxonMobil business lines. In fact, the company is already moving to commercialize, and is planning to deploy O-PAS-based automation architectures elsewhere in its organization, according to Kelly Li, commercial lead at ExxonMobil.
“We’re looking for commercially viable solutions, with the OPA Lighthouse established as the foundation project,” says Li. “As our internal opportunity arises, we’re thinking of multiple facilities and users that could apply O-PAS to capture benefits sooner. In fact, we just awarded our next O-PAS project for a PLC upgrade project at an ExxonMobil Midstream facility in Baton Rouge.”
Li reports that ExxonMobil’s objective for commercializing O-PAS is to encourage an industry shift towards open, secure, standards-based adoption of systems through decisive capital allocation. Its adoption and scale-up plan includes:
- Starting with deploying the Lighthouse project in 2024 to confirm its system capabilities, performance and support model;
- Implementing smaller, less-complex, O-PAS-aligned solutions in 2025 to gain experience and reduce costs; and
- Building an ecosystem of commercially available products for applications of all complexities at ExxonMobil. This ecosystem includes engaging with the company’s suppliers to screen and develop O-PAS-based deployment opportunities, such as near-term PLC and SCADA projects; collaborating with end-users to create demand for O-PAS-aligned solutions; and continuing to help OPAF and other industry associations develop related standards.
“We’re also collaborating with other end-users on implementing O-PAS-based technologies, and participating in other field trials, so we can all get more experience,” adds Li. “Beyond interoperability, optionality, intrinsic cybersecurity, scalability, portability and transferability, the key takeaway is deployment, and we’re inviting everyone to join us.”
