At the Chinese Society of Automation Science and Technology Awards Conference held in Guangzhou on July 2, Schneider Electric won the honors of “Outstanding Automation Engineer” and “Intelligent System Innovative Solution” for its innovative products, leading technologies and successful industry applications in the field of advanced process control. This award not only represents the automation industry’s recognition of Schneider Electric’s powerful AVEVA APC advanced process control system, but also a high degree of recognition of the brand’s long-term commitment to innovation and the development of the industry with digital solutions.

The Chinese Society of Automation Science and Technology Award Conference aims to focus on enterprises with outstanding innovation capabilities, outstanding industrialization achievements and innovative mechanisms in the field of automation in China, and commend the innovative practices of enterprises in the field of automation in China. At the meeting, Weiping Tian, digital software expert of Schneider Electric’s industrial automation business, was awarded “Outstanding Automation Engineer”, who is committed to the field of advanced control expertise, has rich practical experience in advanced control projects and technical capabilities of continuous innovation. Schneider Electric’s AVEVA APC advanced process control solution won the “Intelligent System Innovative Solution” award for its outstanding functionality, innovation, maturity and value.

As the upstream device of chemical industry and metallurgy industry, the reliability of air separation device is very important to the safe and stable operation of the whole plant production system. The air separation device is a typical “multiple-input multiple-output” strong coupling system because of the strong correlation between the flow strands. However, the conventional process control often has control limitations. First, the production load of the air separation unit under conventional process control is greatly affected by the user side and needs to change with the load of the user device. Once the load is not adjusted in time, it is easy to cause energy waste and economic losses. Secondly, the situation that gas products are dispersed or in short supply in actual production will also affect the user’s continuous production process. At the same time, the low level of automation in the air separation industry leads to excess product quality and insufficient precision control.

LT9673a HESG446076R1 HE663599-31813

LT9673a HESG446076R1 HE663599-31813

In order to meet the above challenges, Schneider Electric AVEVA APC advanced process control solution has been digitally upgraded, upgrading the air separation device from conventional DCS control to model predictive control, which can calculate the change trend of controlled variables in the future period, so as to update the control strategy in real time, achieve “card operation”, and help manufacturers realize automatic load change. Improve the level of automation, reduce labor intensity, and stabilize production at the same time, improve the product extraction rate, reduce the energy consumption of the device, and maximize the economic benefits.

Taking a steel company as an example, AVEVA APC advanced process control solution helped it significantly improve the performance of the air separation unit: it realized the automatic load change function of the air separation unit, and the load change response rate was not less than 1%/2min; The operation stability of the air separation unit is improved, and the fluctuation of key process variables is reduced by about 30%. Reduce the occurrence of gas product dispersion; The operation rate of the control system is optimized to reach more than 95%. The collection rate of different gas products is improved.

As a digital transformation expert in the field of global energy management and automation, Schneider Electric is constantly upgrading on the road of digitalization and sustainable development, insisting on innovation as the engine, based on industry needs, and exporting innovative products, technologies and solutions covering the whole life cycle to help the industry achieve high-quality development.