SUPCON

"Enterprises should embrace digital transformation just like they embrace the Internet." Li Wanqing, Chairman of Hubei Sanning Chemical Co., Ltd (hereinafter referred to as "SANNING"), said that the core of the digital transformation for enterprises is to manage people with systems and manage affairs with processes. Li Wanqing also spoke highly of the cooperation with SUPCON, saying that SUPCON has delivered a fabulous project facilitating efficient work flow and systematic cooperation, elevating SANNING's level of digital intelligence to unprecedented heights.

Located in Yichang, Hubei Province, SANNING has an annual production capacity of 1.3 million tons of total ammonia, 3.5 million tons of fertilizer, 2.3 million tons of basic chemical products, 150,000 tons of caprolactam, 300,000 tons of hydrogen peroxide and cyclohexanone, and 600,000 tons of ethylene glycol. It has built the first 5G intelligent factory in Hubei Province, changing the stereotype of a dangerous, labour-intensive and highly polluting chemical plant. “Building intelligent plants, leading industry standard” is SANNING’s blueprint for intelligent development and also its commitment as a leader in China's chemical industry.

Since SANNING officially proposed the overall design plan for the intelligent plant in 2015, SUPCON has been early involved in the plant every step of the way, building and growing together. Starting from providing products such as instruments, meters, and DCS systems, SUPCON became more focused on solving the industry pain points and important problems in the later stages of the project. With the joint establishment of the Industrial Intelligent Application Institute as a new start, SUPCON aims to help SANNING achieve its industry benchmark goals and empower the intelligent upgrade and leapfrog development of the chemical industry.

The cooperation between SANNING and SUPCON started as early as 2005, when the SUPCON JX-300XP control system was first applied in a replacement project with around 3,000 I/os for the first time, but achieved an important upgrade of some of the plants' automation facilities. Afterwards, the DCS, industrial software and i-OMC system of SUPCON have been widely applied in SANNING's intelligent plant upgrade projects. At present, SUPCON control system has been applied in the intelligent operation management and control of 130,000 I/os in SANNING.

Yang Wenhua, the director of SANNING Chemical's Intelligent Plant Promotion Office pointed outt, “ faced with the dilemma of low efficiency and commissioning rate of device loops, through the transformation of automation instrumentation and the comprehensive application of the i-OMC loop tuning, SANNING has increased the self-control rate of the device from less than 50% previously to over 98% in a year, and the self-control rate of some devices has reached 100%. Taking ammonia production as an example, the increased automation rate of one loop can enhance the company's benefit by CNY 580,000/year.

图片2.png

Apart from that, "30 million", "150 days", "40+", and "Zero operations", are some of the figures that have stuck in Yang Wenhua.

Through optimized control, SUPCON i-OMC system has helped SANNING reduce its distillation tower’s cleaning frequency from 7 days/time to 150 days/time, saving huge costs on cleaning shutdowns.

Based on SUPCON “Industrial Operating System + APP” architecture, SANNING has independently developed more than 40 industrial software, which has greatly facilitated its continuous improvement and upgrading in industrial data integration, comprehensive management and data value mining and application, production process optimization and business collaboration.

With the application of key technologies such as predictive control, operation pilot and advanced alarm management, SANNING has reduced the manual operation frequency of all units in Shibaoshan New Material Branch from more than 30,000 times to less than 5,000 times. The overall operation frequency has been reduced by more than 90%; some units have even enabled "Zero Operations” with intelligent autonomous operations.

SANNING has achieved de-skilling of operations in the whole life cycle of the production process, efficiently and conveniently realizing one-click startup and shutdown, automatic load adjustment, precise management of alarms, optimization of process indicators and intelligent decision-making of abnormal working conditions, which has comprehensively improved the self-control rate, smoothness and safety of the plant, significantly reduced the frequency of plant operations and realized the autonomous and collaborative operation of the whole process of plant production.

With the establishment of the SANNING-SUPCON Industrial Intelligence Application Institute, the cooperation between the two parties stands at a new height and a new starting point. SANNING and SUPCON will work together to develop new solutions in the industry and achieve mutual success to make SANNING an industry benchmark with significant influence.

图片1.png

More Info