Chemical Industry

A large fine chemical production enterprise in East China (annual output value >2 billion RMB) operates multiple API synthesis lines and high-temperature/pressure reaction units. The plant’s cooling water circulation system is a critical utility supporting stable reactor temperature control, distillation tower condensing, and equipment heat removal.

The original system used dozens of deep-well submersible + horizontal centrifugal pumps arranged in parallel (10+ units), controlled mainly via conventional hardwired relays and partial analog signals. With production expansion, the following issues became prominent:

• Frequent pump start/stop caused by manual intervention and aging contactors → unstable flow/pressure → temperature fluctuations of ±3–5°C in key reactors
• No centralized monitoring; operators needed to patrol the basement pump room frequently
• Piping network complex, valve status and pump performance difficult to track in real time
• Energy consumption high due to lack of linkage control and variable frequency optimization
• Increasing cybersecurity and maintainability requirements for OT networks

Microcyber Solution Microcyber provided a complete fieldbus + industrial communication upgrade package:

1. NCS-TT106P temperature transmitters and NCS-PT105II pressure transmitters installed at key points of the main supply/return lines, chiller outlets, and critical heat exchanger inlets (PROFIBUS PA protocol)
2. NCS-BP105 fieldbus power conditioners and NCS-IF105P current to Profibus PA converters for integrating existing 4–20 mA instruments into the fieldbus segment
3. Pump VFDs and soft starters integrated via PROFIBUS DP, enabling group start/stop, rotation operation, and automatic standby switching
4. Real-time monitoring of flow, pressure, temperature, motor current, vibration (via additional sensors), and cumulative running hours for predictive maintenance

Implementation Highlights

• Adopted intrinsically safe PROFIBUS PA bus in hazardous areas (Zone 1/2), reducing wiring by ~65% compared to traditional I/O
• Achieved full digital communication from field instruments to control system, greatly improving signal accuracy and anti-interference capability
• Implemented pump group intelligent control logic: automatic load balancing, failure automatic switchover, energy-saving mode (minimum flow guarantee + VFD frequency optimization)
• Added network-level cybersecurity hardening measures (segmentation, access control lists on gateways, protocol whitelist filtering) to meet the latest national MLPS 2.0 requirements for chemical OT environments

Project Results

• Reactor temperature control accuracy improved from ±4°C to ±0.8°C → product yield increased by 2.1–3.4%
• Annual electricity savings on cooling water pumps >1.2 million kWh (≈ RMB 850,000–1,000,000)
• Reduced maintenance workload by 70%; achieved condition-based maintenance instead of time-based
• Pump failure rate dropped by 55% in the first year after commissioning
• No cybersecurity incidents since go-live; system passed third-party OT security assessment
• Project payback period < 14 months

Customer Comment “After introducing Microcyber’s fieldbus solution, our cooling water system changed from a ‘black box’ to a transparent, manageable, and optimizable smart utility. Temperature stability directly improved product consistency, and energy savings were beyond expectation. The communication reliability and security features give us confidence for future digital transformation and smart factory upgrades.”

This case demonstrates how Microcyber’s industrial communication products (temperature/pressure transmitters, fieldbus power conditioners, converters) help chemical enterprises achieve safe, reliable, efficient, and cyber-secure utility system operation.

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