12 April, 2000

Foundation Fieldbus (FF) will emerge as one of the world's dominant fieldbus protocols for process control over the next decade, and its integration with ethernet technology will make plant automation more affordable and much faster.

That's the prediction of two North American fieldbus experts (Ian Verhappen and Kurt Zech) who addressed a two-day FF seminar at Auckland's University of Technology in April. The seminar was organised by the New Zealand FF End User Council.

Verhappen is an Engineering Associate at Syncrude Canada Ltd. The organisation is Canada's second largest oil producer (220,000 barrels a day) and has one of the world's largest FF sites. Zech is the Fieldbus Foundation's Technical Services Manager, and is based in Austin, Texas. One of his many roles is testing devices such as pressure and temperature transmitters for FF conformance.

Both men believe the advantages of the technology and the substantial savings it represents over conventional analog equipment will see a rapid growth in installations. There are currently 1,200 installed FF systems in the world supporting some 40,000 instrument devices.

Verhappen's acquaintance with FF began in 1997 when Syncrude initiated a pilot project to assess the viability of the technology for its expansion plans: to double plant capacity over the next 10 years.

The project (which started in a research lab) evolved into a single loop installation in the oil extraction facility and then into a full, unit operation in March this year. One of the major issues demonstrated by Syncrude's initial projects, says Verhappen, was the interoperability of multi-vendor devices in the FF environment.

The major part of Syncrude's planned expansion is a new mine with a C$6 billion budget. Of that, automation equipment accounts for an estimated 15% (the plant will have about 10,000 I/O). The first unit will be commissioned in 2002.

Based on the company's experience, says Verhappen, Syncrude's engineering team estimates the FF system will realise a 20 - 30% cost saving compared with conventional analog technology. "Our research shows FF hardware is 28% more expensive, but that's offset by other savings. Installation costs, for example, are 4% cheaper. Consider that the FF technology typically represents a 50% reduction in the number of terminations per instrument loop."

Life-cycle costs (operations and maintenance) offer much more dramatic reductions, but the real icing on the cake, he stresses, is the much faster commissioning time. "It means we're up and running and into production much more quickly, and that represent significant gains."

Ethernet

The visitors believe recent developments with the FF's high speed ethernet (HSE) research project in Baytown, Texas, will have a major impact on the evolution of fieldbus technology over the next decade.

Ethernet's viability for process control applications has been a topic of intense discussion for many years. Advantages include its broad installed base and speed - 100m/bits versus the 10m/bits of most fieldbus systems. Sceptics have dismissed it, however, because it is a non-deterministic technology.

But, says Zech, that's all changed. "Developments at the Baytown centre have resulted in a hybrid solution where HSE integrates with FF, providing a form of determinism and very fast communication." FF released specifications for HSE in March, and Zech predicts the international process control industry will see a mushrooming of devices fitted with Ethernet cards over the next few years.

The Foundation's advances with HSE are also significant in the light of the IEC's decision (late last year) to embrace eight protocols as part of an international automation standard - rather than one. The eight are: Foundation Fieldbus H1, Foundation Fieldbus HSE, Profibus, FIP, ControlNet, Swiftnet, ASI, and PNet.

Zech says while the standard decision at least legitimises the FF protocol, it doesn't benefit end users who will now have to deal with eight separate protocols. "Inevitably, that means users will be forced into hybrid systems."

He is confident however that market forces will eventually settle the protocol standard issue. "We will see three or four systems beginning to dominate over the next few years, and I believe Foundation Fieldbus H1 and HSE will be one of the strongest contenders. Right now, they are the only two that speak to each other."

A major part of Zech's job is testing devices for conformance with the FF protocol. So far, 55 devices have passed (they're listed on the FF website: www.fieldbus.org). The testing is now being extended to host systems (to check interoperability). Test procedures have been written and Zech hopes the first systems will receive letters of confirmation by August this year.

Other developments

Zech and Verhappen point to a number of international developments to support their confidence in the emergence of FF as an industry leader. Among them is Fisher-Rosemount's cost saving guarantee (issued in March this year) to prospective clients.

The company guarantees organisations installing its PlantWeb architecture and FF (rather than traditional DCS architectures using 4-20 mA analog technology) will cut automation-related capital costs significantly.

How significantly? Well, based on projects for customers such as ARCO Alaska, SmithKline Beecham, and Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., by between 20% and 40%.

Furthermore, Fisher-Rosemount has until now donated its intellectual property to the Fieldbus Foundation (to encourage development and availability of FF products). But it recently extended this practice, announcing that any patented technology essential to implementing FF specifications will either be assigned to the Foundation or offered as a license to Foundation members on a royalty-free, non-exclusive, worldwide basis.

Says Verhappen: "When we started with FF in 1997 - it was a new technology with a bright future. Today, FF is a viable technology and it is the future."

For more information, call:
Jim Neville
NZ FF End User Council
PO Box 92 902
Onehunga

Tel: 09-634-1391
Fax: 09-636-5976
Email: jneville@customcontrols.co.nz