Integration of Modular Process Units Into Process Control Systems

The modularization of process plants is regarded as a promising approach to cope with upcoming requirements in the process industry regarding flexibility. Within the Decentralized Intelligence for Modular Assets Project, a concept has been developed to overcome current deficiencies in implementing modular plants and especially their automation. On one hand, the approach considers a clear separation of engineering efforts into plant-independent module engineering and plant-specific integration engineering. On the other hand, the concept provides a method for the fast integration of a module's automation system into a higher level process control system. To do so, each module provides its process functionality in encapsulated services. The core of the integration method is a file-based description of the module including its services, operating screens, and communication variables. The so-called “module-type package” is currently under standardization by different organizations. This paper presents the general approach as well as current results of the standardization efforts. Furthermore, the results are executed on an application demonstrator to allow a practical assessment. Thus, module engineering and integration engineering, as well as corresponding software tools can be demonstrated.