Chemical Plant Ramps Up To Full Production Much Quicker

Allen-Bradley PowerFlex 7000 medium-voltage drive addresses power, start-up and operational issues at critical chemical process in The Netherlands

Background

Wilmar International Limited, founded in 1991 and headquartered in Singapore, is one of the world’s leading agribusiness groups and is ranked among the largest listed companies by market capitalisation on the Singapore Exchange.

The company’s business activities include oil palm cultivation, oilseed crushing, edible oil refining, sugar milling and refining, specialty fat, oleo chemical, biodiesel and fertiliser manufacturing and grain processing. It has over 500 manufacturing plants and an extensive distribution network and is backed by a multinational workforce of more than 90,000 people.

Wilmar’s oleo chemicals manufacturing operations has production facilities in China, Malaysia, Indonesia, The Netherlands, France and Belgium. With new facilities operating successfully in China and Indonesia, Wilmar recently introduced a new plant in The Netherlands – based on the successful format deployed in Asia – but it hit an issue when it was unable to use the primary compressor at full load on plant start-up due to limited power supply available. After reviewing various options without success, Wilmar turned to Rockwell Automation and its industry leading PowerFlex® 7000 Active Front End Direct-to-Drive™ drive.

Challenge
  • A critical compressor was unable to start at full pressure, affecting multiple processing steps and desired production objectives

Solutions

Results
  • The compressor can be started at full load without tripping and any detrimental effects on the grid
  • The future introduction of the bypass functionality means that Wilmar will be able access and maintain the drive even with the motor running