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Emerson Digitally Automates $2.7 Billion Shanghai SECCO Petrochemical Complex
Company’s PlantWeb® and project management expertise help beat schedule for start-up of complex, featuring China’s largest ethylene cracker plant
SHANGHAI, CHINA (July 27, 2005) - Emerson Process Management, a business of Emerson (NYSE:EMR), announced today the completion of a digital automation project at one of the largest integrated petrochemical complexes in China. Shanghai SECCO Petrochemical Company had selected Emerson in 2003 as its digital automation partner for the $2.7 billion, 10-plant ethylene cracker complex.
Located in the Shanghai Chemical Industrial Park about 30 miles (50 kilometers) from Shanghai, the complex will annually produce 900,000 tons of ethylene and more than 2 million tons of other related petrochemical products used in the plastics and synthetics industries. The ethylene cracker, SECCO’s core plant in the complex, is the largest in China, as well as one of the largest in the world.
SECCO used the engineering and project management expertise of Emerson to integrate and coordinate multiple suppliers, enabling completion of the complex – from bare ground to a fully functional world-class facility - in just 27 months, three months ahead of schedule. Startup of the ethylene cracker plant in March 2005 took just 10 hours, 45 minutes, a world record, according to SECCO, for a project of this magnitude.
“Our facilities and expert personnel at Pudong enabled us to partner effectively with SECCO, shaping a cutting edge solution,” said Sweechee Lee, general manager, Emerson Process Management China. “We were also able to call upon Emerson experts among our more than 4,000 global engineering and technical service professionals, particularly from centers in India and Singapore.”
Emerson installed PlantWeb® digital architecture throughout the SECCO complex, which contains 47,000 control loops, 40,000 instruments, and some 13,000 intelligent devices networked in the world’s largest Foundation fieldbus installation. Fieldbus is an all-digital, open communications approach that connects measurement and control equipment such as sensors, actuators and controllers in processing applications..
Rather than using a centralized project organization, run by an overall project contractor, SECCO – a joint venture between Innovene (formerly BP), Sinopec, and Shanghai Petrochemical Corporation (SPC) – chose an integrated project management team approach, under which each key plant in the complex had a lead project contractor. As the main automation supplier, Emerson not only engineered and implemented the automation and control systems, but also helped manage multiple international and local suppliers for each of the 10 plants in the facility.
“When you look at the complexity of building 10 units at one time, and asking all of them to start up in a short timeframe with minimum disruption, it’s pretty amazing,” said Jack Brinly, deputy project director at SECCO. “At the beginning, we saw no probability of finishing in early 2005, but we were able to finish 3 months earlier than originally planned, and Emerson deserves much of the credit for making that happen.”
“On such a massive and centralized scale, this is probably the first project of its kind ever,” said Zhang Ziliang, SECCO project director. “In practice, the performance of the complex is outstanding. We have achieved our objectives, and on the whole it is very satisfying.”
According to SECCO, the integrated complex project has a world class safety record, with zero fatalities during construction, which included more than 50 million man hours of labor. The site also boasts leading environmental standards. Recognizing the key role of automation in the successful project, SECCO recently presented Emerson with the Excellent Supplier Award.
“We are honored to be part of the partnership that has made the SECCO project successful,” said Mike Train, president of Emerson Process Management, Asia-Pacific. ”It is gratifying that Emerson’s engineering and project management expertise, and the technology of PlantWeb with FOUNDATION fieldbus played a key role in helping SECCO realize its vision.”
About Shanghai SECCO Petrochemicals
Shanghai SECCO Petrochemicals Company Ltd. (SECCO) is a US$2.7 billion joint venture between Innovene (formerly BP), Sinopec, and Shanghai Petrochemical Corporation (SPC) with equity holdings of 50:30:20 percent respectively. The SECCO complex is located in Shanghai Chemical Industrial Park, about 50 kilometers from Shanghai, China. The complex was mechanically complete in 2004 and operational in June 2005.
The main downstream and derivative plants are planned to produce: Ethylene (900,000 MTY), polyethylene (600,000 MTY), polypropylene (250,000 MTY), styrene (500,000 MTY), polystyrene (300,000 MTY), acrylontirile (260,000 MTY), aromatics (500,000 MTY), butadiene (90,000 MTY), and sulphur acid recovery (350,000 MTY).
One of the 10 plants in the complex is owned by Lucite, and is under contract to be operated by SECCO.
About Emerson Process Management
Emerson Process Management (www.emersonprocess.com), an Emerson business, is a leader in helping businesses automate their production, processing, and distribution in the chemical, oil and gas, refining, pulp and paper, power, food and beverage, pharmaceutical, and other industries. The company combines superior products and technology with industry specific engineering, consulting, project management, and maintenance services. Emerson brands include: PlantWeb®; Fisher®; Micro Motion®; Rosemount®; DeltaV™; Ovation®; and AMS.
About Emerson
Emerson (NYSE:EMR), based in St. Louis, is a global leader in bringing technology and engineering together to provide innovative solutions to customers through its network power, process management, industrial automation, climate technologies, and appliance and tools businesses. Sales in fiscal 2004 were $15.6 billion. For more information, visit www.GoToEmerson.com.
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