AUTOMATION OF CAPTIVE POWER PLANT USING PLC AND DCS

ABSTRACT: Now adays automation of various industrial processes is very important. This project aims the automation of captive power plant installed at the petro chemical division at the FACT using DCS and PLC . The modern techniques like DCS PLC is mainly implemented considering the difficulties in the usage of the ordinary relay based control. Distributed control system is used in variety of industries to monitor and control the distributed equipments. In the system mainly the control of various valves are made by analyzing the analog inputs. Programmable logic controllers are used mainly for the control by analyzing digital input signal. The designing of PLC control system is done by considering the control logic of various operations performed in th plant and developing control programs for the required operation.

Captive Power Plant (CPP) is the power generating unit of Replacement Ammonia Plant (RAP). Main objective of CPP is to provide steady and continuous power. In CPP, steam is produced and using this steam Six Megawatt of electric power is generated. It supplies electric power to all processes equipments in Ammonia complex and also supplies steam to the main steam line to cater to the entire process steam requirement. CPP consist of two boilers which are capable of producing 60 tones of superheated steam per hour with a temperature of 520 degree Celsius and a pressure of 110 ata, this steam is supplied to all major steam line. In CPP mainly four steam lines are used. They are classified as follows; 1) High pressure steam lines -110 ata 2) Medium pressure steam lines-42 ata 3) Low pressure steam lines-12 ata 4) Exhaust steam line-3.5 ata Today, automation is moving rapidly towards a true point of central control that resides in the system operator's office. It is becoming increasingly necessary for the system operators to have finger tip control of the process. This has been greatly fulfilled by the use of programming device. Programmable devices eliminate the need of complex components and the discrete components. They are also more reliable, cheaper and it can withstand harsh factory environments, perhaps the biggest advantages of programmable devices is that their functions are easily changeable by merely changing the program stored in them, there by eliminating need for replacing the whole system. Additional changes can be made incrementally. They also allow interaction with other systems and since their outputs are digital, their working can be easily monitored by computers. In the world of automation, PLC has become a standard for control. It now not only replaces the earlier relay controls but has taken over many additional control functions. PLCs are used to synchronize the flow of inputs from sensors and events with the flow of outputs to actuators and events. This leads to precisely controlled actions that permit a tight control of the process or machine. This project is devoted to the principle upon which PLCs operate. Until the last decade control were realized through the discrete relays. Relays, though simple,

because of these discrete nature and the need for them to be hard-wired for their operation become cumbersome and unfit in cases where a lot of conditions are to be satisfied to achieve automatic control when the system requirements change, the relay wiring has to be changed or modified. In an industrial environment, such modifications are not only time consuming but tedious as well. In extreme cases, such as in auto industry, complete panels have to be replaced as it is not economically feasible to old panels with each model change over. Bigger the process more is need for a PLC. We can simply program the PLC to count its inputs and turn the solenoids on for specified time. Used in industrial and commercial applications, PLCs act as controllers for machines and processes. They monitor inputs, make decisions and control outputs in order to automatic machines and processes. A PLC is a computer designed for using in machines. Unlike a computer, it has been designed to operate in the industrial environment and is equipped with special inputs or outputs and a control program language. Initially the PLC was used to replace relay logic, but its ever increasing range of function means that it is found in many more complex applications. As the structure of a PLC is same as those employed in computer architecture, it is capable of performing not only relay switching tasks but also other applications such as counting, calculating, comparing and the processing of analog signals . In this project, automation of boiler process system is done using PLC. The ladder diagram technique of programming PLC has been utilized. The implementation of this system would replace existing permanent hard-wired relay system by programmable system varied according to the requirement make the system more reliable and upgraded in future. OOteOO In the view of inherent drawbacks of electromagnetic relay based system, it is proposed to replace the logic implementation using PLC's.The PLC programming based on the ladder diagram & details explained later. After careful study and analysis of the boiler process control system installed at Ammonia Complex, FACT, Udyogamandal, we suggested a few modifications for better and more efficient operation of the plant. Some of the suggested modifications were very simple and did not require much attention while some others needed immediate attention.

1. FD fan trip subsequent to ID fan trip. 2. Intercoupling of PLC & DCS. 3. Ratio bias controller. (1) FD Fan Trip Subsequent to ID Fan Trip A rather simplified arrangement of the boiler process control system is as shown Stack ID Fan Air Reg ister Furnace FD Fan Air from Atmosphere Here, air required for combustion is forced into the boiler from the atmosphere by the Forced

Draught (FD) Fan. After combustion, the flue gases are thrown out to the atmosphere through the stack, by Induced Draught (ID) Fan. Now suppose, due to some reason, the ID fan gets tripped while the FD fan goes on working. Then, the gases accumulate with in the boiler developing very high positive pressures, which may damage the boiler and, eventually, lead to the collapse of the whole system. So for proper working of the boiler, it is essential that the FD fan gets tripped subsequent to ID fan trip. Also ID fan should run subsequent to FD fan start-up. In the boiler plant at the Ammonia complex, no such interlock exists to cause the same, at present. Hence operational facilities are to be incorporated for this purpose, as suggested by us, to ensure better safety of the plant. This could be done, by just modifying the PLC program. With a flag which indicates ID fan trip in front panel for PLC. (2) Intercoupling of PLC & DCS In the existing system, PLC & DCS are two different sections, completely independent PLC, which monitors the existence of any unfavorable situation, work with digital values. DCS aims at continuous operation and hence, work with analog quantities. Now these two have to be coupled. To illustrate the present situation, consider the following examples. The airflow should always be maintained to some value corresponding to the load required. This value should be >30% for successful working of the boiler. If the airflow becomes <30%, the PLC should operate to trip of boiler. For this purpose, two flow transmitters have been installed FT2157 & FT2158, one for DCS & other for PLC. (3) Ratio Bias Controller The existing combustion control system works perfectly, when all the burners in both the boilers are working. But if one or more burners of a boiler trips, when the boiler is in the combustion control loop, immediately, the oil flow controller, FIC2106 and the air flow controller, FIC2107, have to be taken into the manual mode. The output of FIC2106 has to be reduced to maintain higher 02 level in the flue gas. This is because, if the loop is in line, it will try to keep the same total oil flow through the remaining burners, resulting in increased oil flow in these burners, while the air flow remains the same. This would leads to decreased efficiency. To avoid such a situation, a modification in the combination control loop is essential and the result is the 'Ratio Bias Controller'. The proposed Ratio Bias Controller (RBC) would divide the air & fuel, equally amongst the presently working burners. This avoids over loading of some of the burners while maintaining higher efficiency, at the same time. Since RBC demands greater attention, it has been dealt separately.