• • • RENEWABLE TECHNOLOGY • • •
Teaching the fundamentals of a greener industrial future
In this Q&A article, Electrical Engineering spoke to David Bowers of ABB Measurement & Analytics to find out how ABB measurement technologies, including the new ABB Ability SmartMaster verification and condition monitoring platform, are being used at Imperial College London to create new skillsets that will help to achieve cleaner, greener, and more efficient industrial processes
Why did ABB become involved with Imperial College London’s carbon capture facility? We saw the project as an ideal opportunity to raise awareness among chemical engineering graduates of the benefits of a career in control and instrumentation engineering.
Since it opened in 2012, the plant has proven to be a great shop window for presenting the opportunities available not just in chemical and process engineering, but also within ABB itself. In the same way as other industrial companies, one of our biggest problems is finding enough suitably qualified engineers to fill the ever-growing range of opportunities we can offer. Today, our team includes people who were educated at the Imperial College facility and came to us as a direct result of their experience of using our technology. Filling the skills gap was a key part of our decision to get involved in the project and forms a continuing justification for our decision to extend our involvement with Imperial College for a further 10 years. Recent estimates from EngineeringUK indicate that the UK still faces a yearly shortfall of 203,000 skilled engineers. If this is not addressed, it will
potentially have a widespread impact on everything from innovation through to economic growth. Part of the problem is that the contribution that engineering makes to society often gets taken for granted and goes largely un-noticed. If we are to rebuild the manufacturing base of the UK, we need to re-establish the awareness of the important contribution that engineering makes to people’s everyday lives. The UK needs to increase its base of skilled engineers if it is to grow its manufacturing sector towards its potential. We believe that the pilot plant supports education by giving tomorrow’s engineers hands-on exposure to real-life technology. This pilot plant really brings the real world into the classroom for the first time.
Which ABB technologies are used at the plant? The plant uses an extensive array of the same ABB products and systems that can be found in use across a broad range of industrial applications. From a measurement perspective, around 250 instruments and analysers measuring parameters including temperature, pressure, flow, level, and pH, are fed to ABB’s System 800xA control system, which forms the heart of the plant’s control room.
30 ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING • NOVEMBER 2023
Combining the functions of a Distributed Control System, Electrical Control System, Safety system and a collaboration enabler, the System 800Xa provides students with an environment from where they can monitor and access real time data on all aspects of the plant.
The plant has been deliberately designed to use more instruments than you’d find on a typical industrial plant in order to give students a fully rounded understanding of different measurement techniques and the impact they can have on measured values. For example, electromagnetic and swirl flowmeters are used in one part of the plant to enable students to compare the different techniques and the impact this can have on assessing plant performance. In a similar way, the plant also uses a variety of communications protocols, including Foundation Fieldbus, Profibus DP, Profibus PA and Wireless HART, to relay data from the instruments to the plant control system. Again, the aim here is to provide students with a full understanding of the variety of options they may encounter in their future careers and enable them to evaluate the merits and potential drawbacks of each one.
electricalengineeringmagazine.co.uk
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