ABB was the electrical and automation partner for the Star Cement clinkerisation plant 10 years ago and had deployed ABB’s DCS for three cement grinding units when these plants were installed. Each grinding unit had a different generation of DCS depending on the plant commissioning period. All grinding units have now been upgraded to ABB Ability System 800xA, which can implement advanced process control methods and is ranked by the ARC advisory group as the world’s No 1 DCS platform over the last 22 years.
“Star Cement will benefit from improved operator visibility, easier maintenance and minimum downtime with the new upgraded systems and uniformity across the various clinkerisation and grinding unit locations,” said Max Tschurtschenthaler, global cement lead, ABB Process Industries. “We are pleased to have built on our longstanding relationship. The successful upgrade of three different systems to the latest platform will ensure overall interoperability and ease of operations.”
“It has always been a fruitful experience working with ABB PI team,” said TVS Chidambaram, COO of Star Cement. “The DCS upgrade project handled by ABB ran very smoothly and barely disturbed the organisation’s ongoing activities. Well planned engineering and installation works during a holiday period helped us to continue our sales without any disturbance. We’re now in a much better position for future operations.”
The scope of work undertaken by ABB included the upgrade of all previously-installed central processing units (CPUs) and controllers to the latest version of ABB Ability System 800xA. The project also involved the complete erection and installation for the new panels while keeping the field wiring intact. Minerals libraries were introduced to the system. Project panels were manufactured and delivered locally.
ABB has installed ABB Ability™ System 800xA®, its distributed control system (DCS) automation platform, to upgrade three grinding units at Star Super Cement in Dubai, UAE, and ensure optimised operations with the Star Cement clinkerisation plant in Ras Al Khaimah, UAE.
Star Cement and Star Super Cement are subsidiaries of UltraTech Cement, India, and operate a 3Mta clinker plant at Ras Al Khaimah, four cement grinding units of 2.2Mta unit at Jabel Ali, a 1.4 Mta plant at Abu Dhabi and a 1.1Mta unit at Ajman in UAE as well as a 1Mta grinding unit in Bahrain.
ABB upgrades process control systems and cement grinding units
in UAE for increased uptimeand uniformity across multiple sites
