Distributed Functional Safety for Modular Process Plants

Modular process plants enable the process industry to adapt to volatile and fluctuating markets. The preferred process technology concept for these market scenarios is realized through combining pre-engineered process equipment assemblies (PEA) from different manufacturers with standardized interfaces. While the flexibility gain for this type of plants is high, the design of the safety systems of these modular plants in terms of exchangeability and compatibility is challenging. One solution could be the development of a safety-interface for PEAs to create flexible and scalable safety systems. The principles of modular basic process control are analyzed and requirements with respect to safety design are discussed. The authors provide a differentiation of the intramodular safety concept of a single PEA from the intermodular safety concept of a complete modular plant. A concept for safe and modular interaction of PEAs in a modular plant is developed and additionally validated on a basic demonstrator. Finally, from these findings, standardization requirements are provided and aspects for further research are pointed out.