NEWS RELEASE                                                                            May 2017

$24 Billion Chemical Industry IIoT and Remote O&M Market by 2024

The revenues generated by IIoT and Remote O&M in the chemicals industry will grow to over $24 billion in 2024 from just $11 billion in 2017. This is the conclusion of the McIlvaine Company in the latest updates N031 Industrial IOT and Remote O&M. By 2024 the East Asian market will rise above $7.6 billion per year as compared to $5.5 billion for NAFTA.

A number of companies are moving forward with robust programs. Covestro has three approaches:

  • In the short-term the company aims to optimize supply by innovating its day-to-day business through improving reliability and supply chain performance.
  • In the mid-term Covestro wishes to leverage growth and innovate the ways customers do business with the company.
  • Long-term Covestro is considering completely new digitally enabled business models.

Covestro and other chemical companies will gain from improved condition monitoring. Valves, pumps, and heat exchangers are high on the list for improved monitoring. Covestro has assets in many countries in Europe as well as two sites in Asia and one in the U.S. Monitoring assets at all these locations in one cloud-based system will benefit the many large chemical companies with multiple sites around the world.

Progress will be achieved by expanding from individual automation systems provided by one supplier for one plant to cloud-based systems with open platforms to accommodate the input from a wide variety of systems in all the plants. The foundation will be the automation systems already perfected. 

McIlvaine is conducting a webinar on IIoT and Remote O&M for the chemical industry on Wednesday, June 7, 2017. It will be examining a number of successful systems including:

  • Blaser Swiss ALube use of GE software for improved process quality and 45% improvements in energy efficiency.
  • Profertil (Argentine petrochemical manufacturer) improvements generated by GE Asset Answers.
  • Schneider Electric Wonderware IntelaTrac deployed at more than 120 chemical industry sites.
  • Nexen Chemical use of Emerson Delta V Digital Automation System.
  • Rockwell comprehensive automaton system at Syngenta Crop Protection.
  • Valmet automation system for INOVYN at their Swedish chlorine plant, for a Kemira sodium chlorate plant and Borealis Polymers olefin facility.
  • ABB automated oil blending system at the Peluma, Indonesia lubricant plant.

These plants can integrate the present systems into cloud-based open platform systems to cover the balance of the plant.

The industrial Internet of Wisdom (IIoW) empowers IIoT. This involves the interconnection of people and knowledge. It specifically depends on the delivery of the 4 knowledge needs:  Alerts, Answers, Analysis and Advancement. Training courses are important for Advancement. Honeywell has a training course on Distillation as part of its Automation College program. This course is for operators.

At a higher level decision guides are a route to both Analysis and Advancement. McIlvaine has created a decision guide on mechanical vapor recompression options for distillation. Thousands of such guides are needed for chemical industry processes.

An important aspect of IIoW is the interconnection between divisions in supplier companies. Pall has built a filter business around process knowledge and the tailored solution for a myriad of process requirements reflecting the diversity in the chemical industry. Pall Total Fluid Management integrates properly selected filtration and separation equipment into production processes to yield the highest efficiency at the lowest total cost.

Pall is a division of Danaher who also owns Chemtreat and Hach. Chemtreat furnishes the treatment chemicals needed with the filtration systems. Hach supplies the sensors and monitoring to allow Danaher to provide remote O&M of the filtration and separation processes.

Suez has purchased GE Water. Suez is remotely operating water and wastewater treatment plants around the world. With GE Water this capability can be extended to the chemical industry. GE Water has many successes. For example, a petrochemical plant in Thailand was experiencing severe fouling in a debutanizer. GE Water analyzed the problem and provided a solution. GE Water eliminated the calcium carbonate scaling problems at a fertilizer plant in the U.S. with a proprietary organic acid created for this type of problem. The Suez/GE Water combination provides a strong foundation for an IIoT and Remote O&M offering in the chemical industry.

To register for the June 7 webinar click on Weekly IIoT Webinars

For more information on IIoT and Remote O&M click on N031 Industrial IOT and Remote O&M