Beyond ExxonMobil’s achievements, the Open Process Automation Forum (OPAF) reported at the ARC Industry Forum that the organization’s other members have also been making gains on multiple fronts.
“We congratulate ExxonMobil because they’ve proven that deploying the Open Process Automation Standard (O-PAS) in a front-line, revenue-generating, process operation can be done, and that its distributed control node (DCN), OPA connectivity framework (OCF) and advanced computing platform (ACP) sections are an architecture that can be built on,” said Jacco Opmeer, co-leader of OPAF and principal automation engineer at Shell. “The Lighthouse project shows that it can be done, and that small changes and additions can be fixed by system integrators using OPC UA’s functions, for instance, for some extended alarm functions.”
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OPAF now has more than 100 member companies, including large DCS suppliers and many end users, such as Petronas and Reliance. Most of them are testing O-PAS, developing proofs-of-concept, and/or conducting field trials. For example, Opmeer reports that Shell’s test bed was finalized in 2022, and was tested throughout 2023. It’s based in Shell’s technology center in Houston, and it comprises a small distillation column simulation with Phoenix Contact’s 3152 I/O module and two additional DCNs, including one from Advantech that sits on top of the I/O devices.
“We’re satisfied with the results so far because we’re using a technology maturity process, which indicates that O-PAS has reached a mature level,” explained Opmeer. “We’ve been mixing our O-PAS components to see how they behave, and researching where deploying O-PAS fit-for-purpose devices makes the most sense. Next, we’ll explore implementation opportunities.”
Likewise, OPAF launched its certification program last year for evaluating compliance with O-PAS, Version 2.1. It started by making OPC UA connectivity and global discovery services available, and plans to soon recognize verification labs, certify physical platforms, and integrate network capabilities. “Certification gives users the essential parts for building their own O-PAS systems,” added Opmeer. “We believe O-PAS should be the USB of process control—users should just be able to plug in devices and have them work. This is what OPAF intended, and it’s what O-PAS has become.”
Several sections coming to O-PAS
Opmeer reports that OPAF also conducted a week-long plugfest for O-PAS in September 2024 at Shell’s offices in Amsterdam. This interoperability event allowed developers and users to test their O-PAS kits and prototype devices with each other, determine needed improvements, and better understand the standard-of-standard’s overall structure and requirements. This ongoing testing of the standard’s capabilities encouraged OPAF to add several sections to O-PAS, Version 2.1, during 2025-26, such as:
- Ensuring security by employing role-based access and managing certificates;
- Collaborating with the OPC Foundation to add OPC UA Field eXchange (FX) field-level extensions, including its publish-subscribe and I/O functions;
- Incorporating hardware and architecture updates that reflect what OPAF has learned along with demands from overall ecosystems;
- Integrating updates to Automation Markup Language (ML) to allow software portability and enable digital engineering. AutomationML is a neutral data format based on XML for storing and exchanging plant engineering data;
- Using software orchestration to automate IT-related functions, and help manage O-PAS components.
“We’re not waiting for the next version of the standard. We’re ready to continue adding features that users want, such as working closely with OPC Foundation to add more security levels,” added Opmeer. “We’re also looking to add AutomationML and develop more O-PAS standard content at the engineering level.”
Standards build value
Dave Emerson, co-chair of OPAF’s enterprise architecture working group and retiring VP of Yokogawa’s U.S. Technology Center, adds that interest in O-PAS is increasing worldwide because users at brownfield facilities are faced with increasingly obsolete and/or end-of-life equipment, while greenfield processes likewise need new devices at the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO). Yokogawa served as the system integrator for ExxonMobil’s testbed and Lighthouse field test projects.
“Users want to create new value for their applications and companies, and O-PAS provides a new, simpler model for process control and automation. Its decoupling of software from hardware enables its interoperability, flexibility and scalability, while its orchestration lets users determine what functions to run, how much of each, and where to run them,” says Emerson. “In this case, O-PAS covers two software categories: controlling operating processes and seeking greater efficiency, and management and health of its systems and tasks, such as data collection, historization and HMIs. This is how O-PAS brings IT-level capabilities to process engineering, including built-in cybersecurity. It and other virtualized functions can run in O-PAS’ DCN hardware components.”
Mark Hammer, OPA product and services manager at Yokogawa, adds that it’s released a system management tool called Watcher that monitors qualified devices and systems, including those from other suppliers, and presents details about all of them on a single-pane display. It provides open-process, secure-by-design capabilities by using Fast IDentify Online (FIDO) open, standardized authentication protocols and Trusted Platform Modules (TPM) tamper-proof microprocessors that follow the ISO/IEC 11889 standard.
“FIDO and TPM were also used in ExxonMobil’s Lighthouse project,” says Hammer. “Components employ FIDO report their availability, and certificates authenticate them, so they can add operating systems and other functions.”
