Ammonia Offloading Facility
JR Simplot Helm
Customer Background
JR Simplot Company, one of the oldest agribusinesses in the U.S., operates a high-quality fertilizer plant in the central valley of CA. Built in the 1950s, and operated by J.R. Simplot company since the 1990s, Enterprise Automation first began servicing the facility as controls integrator in 2006. As an aging facility that has gone through multiple operators, EA has been involved in numerous control system retrofit and expansion projects.
Project Background
One of the facility expansions incorporated a new ammonia offloading plant, where multiple daily tanker trucks can offload ammonia used for fertilizer production. The liquid ammonia is delivered and fed into large permanent storage tanks. While it sits, the liquid ammonia boils off into vapor. The low-pressure vapor is compressed using redundant screw compressors into high-pressure vapor which is then used to force liquid ammonia out of the offloading tanker trucks, completing the cycle. A set of pumps is used to move liquid ammonia out of the storage facility and into the fertilizer production areas of the overall site.
EA Solutions
EA was responsible for designing and delivering the control panel that becomes the electrical interface between the controls system and the various field devices such as valves, transmitters, and pumps. EA also developed the control narrative for the facility by working with JR Simplot engineers. Using this narrative, EA programmed the system logic using Allen Bradley PLC and HMI products. In addition to local operator control at the control panel level, CitectSCADA was used to provide operators a central visual interface for controlling and monitoring the ammonia offloading operation. The system allows the operators to issue commands from SCADA and HMI, and allows for real-time monitoring of process data as well as historical reports for past periods of operation.
Key Insights
- CitectSCADA and FactoryTalk View ME HMIs
- Redesigned plant PLC Ethernet backbone
Key Technologies:
- Citect SCADA
- Virtualized SCADA Platform
- Wonderware Historian
- AB ControlLogix
- AB Intellicenter 580
Project Metrics:
- EA’s Services Value: $440k
- Project Length: 2 years
