McCommas Bluff Biogas Upgrading Plant
V Core USA
Customer Background
V Core Renewable Energies focuses on utilizing stranded biogas to generate usable renewable resources. As a small EPC contractor, they provide turnkey solutions to customers while keeping development and construction costs low. Part of their solution has been to sole source Enterprise Automation (EA) as their project’s controls integrator allowing for a deep development of standards and processes to leverage across their portfolio of work. Their facilities and designs include converting biogas to power, natural gas, and vehicle fuel, among others.
Project Background
The McCommas Bluff Landfill Biogas Upgrading Plant is one of the largest of its kind in the US. The landfill produces over 10,000 SCFM of biogas on a consistent basis, which continues to increase as the landfill receives more trash. The plant was built over 2 decades ago and was in desperate need of repair and rehabilitation. As part of the process, EA was engaged to develop a new state of the art controls system that included new process control logic to optimize the plant. The plant includes Desulphurization, Temperature Swing Adsorption (TSA), Vacuum Pressure Swing Adsorption (VPSA), thermal oxidation, Flare gas management, and multiple stages of gas compression and process liquid cooling.
EA Solutions
EA produced 13 RIO cabinets that contain over 1200 physical IO from devices and instruments around the plant. All of this data is brought into a single Allen Bradley Control Logix master PLC which handles all of the logic processing for the plant. EA was able to fully test and validate operation through simulation with the design engineers, prior to arrival on site. Startup of all IO was accomplished in less than 20 days of overall plant downtime. In addition, WonderWare InTouch HMI is used for visualization.
Contract Highlights
- Minimal downtime startups/cutover
- Turnkey SI package
Key Technologies:
- Allen Bradley ControlLogix PLCs
- HART FlexIO
- Wonderware Intouch HMI
Project Metrics:
- EA’s Services Value: $2M
- Project Length: 1.5 years
