In a pilot project initiated by specialty chemicals company Evonik, Yokogawa worked with other automation vendors to utilise Module Type Package (MTP) standards for the first time in a commercial industrial environment. The pilot project was launched in summer 2018 and carried out in a world-scale amino acid plant operated by Evonik in Singapore. Following the system integration, the package units were successfully commissioned in May 2019.
The modern chemical industry faces multiple challenges, such as increased production flexibility and a shorter time to market. To address these challenges, NAMUR, the German body representing users of automation systems in process industries, developed MTP to solve communication and connectivity problems in highly adaptive, modular plants*. MTP provides a standardised, non-proprietary description of process modules or package units to ensure efficient integration into automation systems and save users time and money. Yokogawa has been actively involved in the NAMUR MTP project.
Evonik, ENGIE, Siemens, and Yokogawa collaborated on the integration of a chiller package unit into a conventional production plant by means of MTP. This is the first practical application of MTP standards in an industrial environment (Figure). The MTP integration comprised human machine interface (HMI) and communication interface aspects.
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The existing Yokogawa distributed control system (DCS) was connected to a Siemens programmable logic controller (PLC) via the OPC UA communication protocol, made possible by a Yokogawa-developed MTP import tool based on Automation Markup Language. The chilling process was initially simulated on the PLC and could be monitored on the MTP operating screen of the DCS. Commissioning was subsequently carried out successfully at the Evonik production site, demonstrating the practical benefits of the MTP standard.
*The requirements of MTP are described in VDI / VDE / NAMUR 2658 “Automation engineering of modular systems in the process industry”, which is currently under development.
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