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Overview
A session at the recent 2020 ARC Industry Forum in Orlando, Florida focused on open process automation and the status of open automation projects conducted by major process industry end user firms. The presenters at this session were from ExxonMobil, Evonik, and Saudi Aramco. First, David DeBari of ExxonMobil presented the company’s open automation prototype and testbed systems, which use The Open Group’s Open Process Automation standard (O-PAS). Second, Igor Stolz of Evonik presented three use cases the company had developed for the MTP (module type package) technology of NAMUR. Finally, a representative from Saudi Aramco presented a status update on its use of The Open Group’s O-PAS specifications.
ExxonMobil Open Process Automation Projects
ExxonMobil has conducted three major programs for open process automation. The first was a “proof of concept” project conducted and completed in 2018. The results of this project were reported at the 2018 ARC Forum. The second was a prototype project for which ExxonMobil gave its first public report on at this year’s ARC Industry Forum. The project involved both Lockheed Martin and Wood Group as system integrators, a different set of participating suppliers, and was applied to an actual (rather than simulated) process, albeit at 
pilot plant scale. The third program discussed was a testbed system being developed in Texas with Yokogawa as system integrator.
The ExxonMobil proof-of-concept system used a set of suppliers to prove out and experiment with the concepts of open process automation.
The photo on this page shows the prototype automation system for the pilot project. The pilot plant being operated is used to evaluate catalysts. This plant is now running using an automation system developed and integrated by Lockheed Martin and Wood Group. It will remain running for several months during 2020 in a laboratory within ExxonMobil research facilities in New Jersey. A human operator will operate the pilot plant at actual process conditions in terms of temperatures and pressures.
ExxonMobil also reported on the testbed system the company is developing in Texas. It plans to use the testbed to expand the number of products and technologies that can be used in open process automation. ExxonMobil also reported that it has added to the set of collaboration partner companies that will help test this technology in field trials going forward.
In terms of learnings, ExxonMobil noted the need to approach what it called the “system ness” of a proprietary DCS with open process automation. By this, the company is referring to the integration of multiple engineering software tools, system management capabilities, and historical data capabilities to develop a unified interface for the human operators and engineers and also provide a high degree of situational awareness. This reference to the need for “system-ness” no doubt brought a smile to the faces of representatives from existing DCS suppliers, since these companies have worked for many years and over several generations of products to build this behavior and “look and feel” into their DCS offerings.
Exxon Mobil also outlined some areas for future work and the testbed system. The company wants to include operator mobility and additional suppliers for various types of equipment. As noted in previous reports, this analyst believes that ExxonMobil will find it very useful to incorporate software containers and container orchestration in the testbed, which is part of their current test plan.
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Keywords: Aramco, Evonik, ExxonMobil, MTP, NAMUR, Open Process Automation, The Open Group, ARC Advisory Group.