CIA2003 set to showcase total industry solutions

Responsible care, open software for real-time process monitoring, digital valves for digital plants, cost-effective safety instrumentation, and energy-saving systems, are some of the many innovations and proposals at the CIA2003 International Conference, Asia's most established conference on the chemical, oil & gas and process engineering industries.

The international conference, which runs from 2-5 December 2003, is a learning and innovation platform on the latest in chemical and process engineering, process controls and instrumentation. The conference, themed 'Process Automation - From Process to Business Improvement', will be held in conjunction with the CIA2003 (ChemAsia, InstrumentAsia and AnaLabAsia) exhibition at Suntec Singapore.

Experts from industry and research institutions will present a variety of papers dealing with wide-ranging topics from safety and cost saving to emergency response to chemical spills.

One of the most important industry initiatives in development is 'Responsible Care', a voluntary commitment to a set of guidelines and practice codes by chemical companies to continuous improvements in health, safety and environmental concerns. In Singapore, Responsible Care was adopted by the Chemical Industry Council in 1999 and about 70 companies have actively started to implement the codes of practice.

In the keynote address at the conference, managing director George Grosliere of ExxonMobil Singapore Chemical will discuss Responsible Care and its increasing recognition in the international community.

In a disaster-prone world, the handling and transporting of chemicals need to be conducted according to an effective risk management strategy that takes into account an emergency response system in the event of a chemical spill.

Chris Richards of Oil Spill Response will outline the expert procedures that have to be in place in case of an incident as such.

Real-time data processing in the field is a complex challenge. Profibus has provided three separate but compatible solutions - ProfiNet, Profibus-DP and Profibus-PA. Volker Schulz, secretary of the Profibus Association in South-east Asia, will share insights into the Profibus plantwide fieldbus solution.

Meanwhile, Andreas Agostin of Pepperl + Fuchs will share present new foundation fieldbus techniques to provide high availability and cost-savings. Delegates will also learn from Dr. Liu Jun of the Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences on the integration of software engineering tools for the process industry and the use of Object Linking Embedding for Process Control standards, which provides a framework to test new technologies in real-time simulation and integrate them into the plant.

One of the marvels of chemical technology is the development of products with new and unusual properties, not just for consumer applications, but for industrial processes too.

Yokogawa Electric's Manabu Furutsuki will present a newly developed cost-reducing, energy-saving system for air-conditioning that promises 60 to 90 per cent savings. Moreover, the control system can be easily installed without modification to the existing equipment.

Operational excellence is the goal of most process plants and this is achievable with the installation of digital control valves and using valve diagnostics in addition to the adoption of Advanced Process Control.

A. F. Stanley of Emerson Process Management will share case studies and success stories on this and conduct a live dial-up to the Emerson facility in Singapore to demonstrate the latest on valve diagnostics and control valve performance.

Open software for effective plant life-cycle management is another important paper to be presented by Markus Hauhia of Metso Automation Asia-Pacific. Most process downtime could be attributed to mechanical failure with rotating equipment as the main source of failure. Online monitoring of field devices can identify the cause of failure and minimise outage time. The paper describes the introduction of the Field Device Tool as an effective solution.

A modern control system needs more than just configuration and monitoring capability. The software infrastructure and the network infrastructure form the basis for the information architecture of the system and has therefore become an increasingly important criteria for the selection of control systems in recent years.

Jonas Berge, Manager for Smar will share his insights on how to select the software architecture for the system to integrate with digital field communications and when to use web technologies.

With more than 900 exhibiting companies, visitors will find CIA2003 to be a one-stop sourcing destination for the procurement needs of a wide variety of industries.

The CIA2003 International Conference, which is organised by Singapore Exhibition Services, will also feature many other prominent industry experts. For more information on the conference or exhibition, please log on to http://www.buynet.com.au/editall/directories/news/www.cia-asia.com