PD-10-116 Procedural Automation: Improving Consistency & Production

Description:

Honeywell Specialty Materials’ operation at Geismar, LA sought to automate a catalyst regeneration process for one of its refrigerant-producing units. Manual execution of the complex regeneration process took too long and stretched over a number of days. Operation suffered a rate penalty during each regeneration, and the resulting variability also required some process set point changes after every regeneration and reduced ultimate catalyst life. So Geismar deployed Honeywell’s Procedural Operations (ProcOps) solution from its sister Automation division, Honeywell Process Solutions. The results have been gratifying: The regeneration process has become routine, follows a consistent path, is done in 15% less time, and consumes less utilities. Lessons from this deployment can be applied not only to catalyst regeneration, but also to polymer grade transitions, ethylene decoking, start-up, shut down and transient activities, and other manual operations.