ABB digital control systems to modernise major cement plant in Oman
09 February 2021
ABB has built on a 40-year relationship with cement producer Oman Cement Company SAOG (OCC) in delivering the latest digital control systems to boost operational efficiency, increase availability, lower costs and drive sustainability.
The Muscat-based cement factory, which has an annual cement production of 3.5 million metric tons, now has the latest version of ABB Ability System 800xA, which integrates its three process lines into the single digital platform. ABB has also replaced older controllers in their final lifecycle phase with AC800M models.
Teams from Oman Cement Company and ABB Switzerland collaborated to complete the engineering, supply, installation and commissioning of the ABB systems. ABB secured two separate contracts for the work with OCC, a company that has been a customer since 1978.
“Cement production is a core industry for Oman, serving and enabling a self-sufficient construction industry,” said Bashar Al Farsi, Head of Instrumentation and Control, OCC. “With the long-term support of ABB we have added to this strength and look forward to continued success, now with the latest digital control system across our three process lines. We have already identified time and cost savings, and will drive towards greater efficiencies and sustainability targets as we aim to be the number one cement manufacturing company in the Sultanate.”
ABB Ability System 800xA, ranked by the ARC advisory group as the world’s #1 distributed control system (DCS) platform over the last 20 years, can implement advanced process control methods.
“Connecting all three lines on one platform from a single partner versus multiple deliveries from different parties harmonises the engineering and technology standards across the plant. This also helps gain synergies for operations and maintenance teams by ensuring overall interoperability and consistency as well as reducing complexity,” said Max Tschurtschenthaler, Global Cement Lead, ABB Process Industries.
ABB’s new system also has a solid foundation to build up digital applications and integrate other process areas of the OCC plant on the same single platform.
“Deep domain knowledge and long-term customer relationships remain key factors of our performance and this was shown with our recent project with Oman Cement Company,” said Ramzi Akkawi, Regional Sales Manager North Africa and Middle East for Mining, Aluminium and Cement, ABB.
“Clear technical know-how, upfront transparency and the ability to highlight and eliminate potential risks based on past execution experience was highly regarded by our customer. We had a strategic approach to execute these projects with minimal production downtime.”
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