Companies in the process industry operate in some of the world’s most demanding physical environments, facing numerous challenges such as climate change, volatile market prices, and demand fluctuations, as well as having to meet complex compliance requirements and regulatory obligations. Digital transformation is providing the process industry with new opportunities to boost efficiency, cut costs and achieve sustainability. Digital solutions help companies to streamline and optimise their operations and adapt more flexibly to changing market conditions.
Rittal offers an extensive range of enclosure, climate control, power distribution and IT infrastructure solutions for all sectors of the industry – from upstream to midstream to downstream. Naturally, every product fully complies with all regional and national regulations. Rittal also guarantees the highest quality standards, as well as reliable deliveries and top-class service. Rittal is a world-renowned industry partner providing high-performance, modern infrastructure and digital solutions across the entire added value chain, from extraction to transport and processing.
Alongside Rittal with its high quality award-winning solutions, Eplan spans and supports the entire design, planning and engineering value chain and offers comprehensive plant engineering software solutions right from the process design stage. All the modules are integrated on one platform, whether PFDs (Process Flow Diagrams), P&ID, loop, schematic circuit diagrams or enclosure visualisation. This makes data disruption and inconsistencies a thing of the past. Thanks to integrated jump functions between the drawings and centralised data storage within the software, there is no need for any additional databases or data management tools. Eplan is synonymous with seamless data consistency, supported by as-built or as-is documentation at the touch of a button.
In the process industry, dependable global availability of maintenance and repair services is crucial in minimising operational disruptions and avoiding production downtimes. It helps to choose equipment that is modular and easily scalable for any potential expansion plans. This means that additional equipment can be accommodated in a confined space without converting, rebuilding or expanding the entire production line. Consequently, investment in robust, easily maintainable and flexible IT infrastructure is one of the main considerations for companies active in the process industry. With a comprehensive range of certified and approved, standards-compliant solutions with all the relevant certifications, Rittal offers you outdoor enclosures and corresponding climate control systems that are ready to be used quickly and reliably anywhere in the world.
The Rittal Ex enclosure range can be used in Ex zones 1 and 2. These enclosures are also suitable for outdoor use. Specially designed for decentralised I/O applications, they let system operators flexibly mount I/O points where they are needed. The ground-breaking technology of fibreglass-reinforced polymer in Rittal’s AX plastic Ex enclosures offers a space-saving and lightweight package that can be installed in Zone 1 and 2 hazardous environments. It also offers excellent corrosion, rain and UV resistance, making it suitable for any indoor and outdoor environment.
While Rittal provides flexible, robust and weatherproof systems for hazardous environments with its Ex range, Eplan offers you tried-and-tested, end-to-end solutions, especially for downstream operations.Eplan Solutions combine process engineering, instrumentation and control technology, as well as fluid and electrical project planning. This end-to-end seamlessness allows for a perfectly streamlined workflow from design and project planning to maintaining and servicing the systems. Features such as redlining and greenlining workflows or remote viewing make maintenance and repair work easier and minimise downtimes. With products such as eView, eManage and Rittal’s ePOCKET, Eplan supports easier maintenance and repair by facilitating joint decision making and assuring important work reliably and safely.
Companies in the process industry have significant opportunities to benefit from digital transformation. In the upstream, midstream and downstream sectors, players in the oil and gas industry can minimise risks and save time and money on checking, testing and assessing systems by digitally networking process chains.
New digital technologies such as remote sensors connected via the cloud, analytics and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) make it possible to monitor and track equipment maintenance.
Digital strategies are also important for business success. For a long time, digitalisation has been a stabilising factor for companies in the oil and gas industry. Business analytics, combined with Big Data and artificial intelligence (AI) can help executives and managers gain a better understanding of which processes offer the greatest benefits.
To achieve the goals of digitalisation, it is first necessary to standardise. This standardisation, followed by modularisation and automation, forms the sequence of steps towards digitalisation in the process industry. Eplan supports this process with highly standardised system design and engineering software based on norms and standards common to the oil and gas industry. Moreover, Eplan offers its solutions, such as the usage, creation and maintenance of macros to flexibly map options and variations. This means that Eplan can support your digitalisation projects right from the start.
Rittal is driving this development forward by introducing IIoT solutions and smart services. These range from smart sensors and enclosure monitoring to smart cooling solutions, intelligent service concepts and cloud computing power. These solutions allow companies to increase the reliability of their production sites, optimise energy consumption and promote digitalisation.
Using real-time applications and automation reduces downtimes and increases safety and productivity in various areas like robotics, pipeline and refinery technology. Deeper insights and a better understanding of complex operational processes enable companies to reduce costs and optimise the performance of employees, systems and resources. Digitally networked systems create these insights for every device and at every access point, for employees at HQ to the most remote refineries. They ensure greater efficiency of risk management, for example, by identifying and managing cybersecurity risks more quickly.
Rittal offers the Edge Data Center to process large amounts of data in real time: This is a platform for quickly creating an IT environment that can be flexibly used in different IT infrastructures. The modules are available in various performance categories and can be combined to create a ready-to-use solution in practically no time at all. This significantly speeds up the implementation of a data centre while, at the same time, ensuring the best possible operational efficiency.
Designers, planners and process plant operators face three key challenges: Plant safety, plant availability and plant load. Operators in the oil and gas industry can greatly increase their plant availability through efficient design and engineering. Better coordination between design, engineering and operations is achieved by using Eplan solutions. Eplan’s comprehensive and holistic engineering software ensures that the automation system matches and meets the operator’s goals as defined in the front-end engineering and development phase (FEED). Furthermore, the widespread use of Eplan enables a constantly up-to-date digital image of the operating system and plant, ensuring greater planning reliability in the event of operational modifications or plant load changes.
While Rittal provides the IT infrastructure quickly and efficiently, Eplan optimises the interaction between design, planning, engineering and operations, thereby increasing plant availability, reliability and safety. Jointly, our solutions help you improve your operational processes and achieve your digitalisation goals.
The process industry plays a central role in the global economy and is therefore at the very heart of the sustainability debate. High energy consumption combined with high fossil fuel use, rising energy costs and tougher legal regulations are making the decarbonisation of the industry increasingly more urgent. Companies are therefore under increasing pressure to reduce their carbon emissions and increase the energy efficiency of their operations.
An end-to-end comprehensive and effective sustainability management strategy that relies on digitalisation and automation is essential in achieving this goal. Smart climate control solutions help minimise unplanned outages and reduce the associated unnecessary energy and raw material consumption.
Rittal offers the world’s most efficient climate control solutions to help you reduce your carbon footprint. A Blue e+ cooling unit saves an average of 75 per cent energy and thus, depending on the electricity mix, around 1 tonne of carbon emissions. Rittal’s range of dedicated wall-mounted cooling units for enclosures particularly in demanding environments ensure both process and operational reliability, especially in control rooms where overall room climate control is not possible.
The process industry is made up of two key and fundamental variables: the horizontal supply chain and the vertical asset life cycle, both of which come together in production.
To a large extent, the efficiency of the overall system depends on the prompt and comprehensive availability of reliable information from both areas. For example, changes in the quality of raw materials may call for adjustments in production, which have already been addressed in process development. Digitalisation will bring significant progress here by increasing process reliability, efficiency and – ultimately – profitability.
Information can be accessed quickly and comprehensively from all areas by using the digital twin. A wide range of options also arise from model-based data analysis, the results of which then flow back into the real world and influence it. This makes planning much more precise and any potential weak points or faults as well as any energy and material savings can be identified at an early stage. For example, a component’s wear condition can be predicted based on design and operating data, while data-driven dynamic process models can help dynamically optimise process control.
Rittal ePOCKET – the digital wiring plan pocket – helps you access projects even faster.
Eplan offers you specific solutions for optimising processes and workflows in the oil and gas industry. Data consistency and openness to standard interfaces and systems enable cross-disciplinary and cross-functional documentation, from which companies benefit far beyond engineering. Eplan facilitates the creation of project documentation in different languages and adapted to different standards and working conditions and environments. From a single source, Eplan offers you everything with comprehensive software solutions, training and consulting services. Clear and complete engineering documents accelerate commissioning, while the automatic updating of all analyses ensures up-to-date and as-is documentation. This provides engineering reliability and allows modifications to be made during operation.