How are companies in the chemical processing industries looking at Industrial Internet of Things technologies to improve their operations? This question was the focus of a Chemical Engineering article, The Digital Transformation in the CPI.
The article opens describing this digital transformation occurring:
More and more, smart sensors and equipment that contain smart diagnostic features are being used in industry to generate large volumes of data. Advanced computing technologies are allowing these devices to be connected to each other, and to use the data in a variety of ways. This growing interconnectedness of industrial operations is what is meant by the now familiar term, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).
Emerson’s Marcelo Carugo shared his thoughts on how this digital transformation affects refiners and chemical producers:
IIoT is partly about how we make data accessible and then get the right data to the right person, in the right format, at the right time — to make a decision. It’s about transferring digital data into digital intelligence by using the thousands of touch and sensing points in your plant and advanced analytics to help you recognize patterns and make decisions based on patterns instead of individual measurements.
What’s causing refiners and chemical producers to explore IIoT technologies?
A key driver for the digital transformation in the CPI is maintaining a competitive edge. Global competition, immediate communications and technological advances are creating an environment where businesses need to respond with increasing speed. Aligning production and business through the tools available with digitalization offers new possibilities for business models.
Read the article to see the views from chemical industry leaders from Akzo Nobel, Dow and Evonik, as well as advances in IIoT technologies in sensors, augmented and virtual reality, and process modeling & simulation.
Technology alone will not deliver the performance improvements sought. Organizational culture changes, revised work practices and improved collaboration between, “…operational technology (OT), information technology (IT) and engineering technology (ET)…” is required to take full advantage of the technologies to drive safety, efficiency, reliability and emissions improvements.
You can connect and interact with other IIoT, refining and chemical industry experts in the Wireless, Refining and Chemical industry groups in the Emerson Exchange 365 community.
