Digitalization
A. RIVERO, Rajant Corp., Houston, Texas
Taking on petrochemical plant hurdles
with networking smarts
The petrochemical industry is facing one of the most sig-
nificant challenges in its history. The COVID-19 pandemic has
shrunk demand for a variety of end products that rely on petro-
chemicals, polymers and specialty polymers. The petrochemicals
market has witnessed instability in pricing for naphtha, ethylene
and heavy paralysis oil, among others. These factors combined
are byproducts of the fact that our usual energy-consuming activ-
ities have been halted. The situation is hitting the industry hard
as fewer vehicles take to the road.
The volatility in the chemicals space has triggered a chain of
events in the energy markets that will inevitably impact the in-
dustry for years to come. As a competitive industry in standard
times, the pressure on companies to economize has been made
even more significant.
To remain competitive and profitable in a time of economic
uncertainty, one way for petrochemical operations to prosper is
by embracing new and innovative technologies to improve safety
and optimize production at their plants. For these advanced ap-
plications to realize their full potential, they need full Industrial
Internet of Things (IIoT) connectivity in petrochemical plants.
To interact with and manage this network, companies need a
network infrastructure that is fully mobile and provides optimal
broadband connectivity across the entire organization. Reliance
on IIoT and machine-to-machine (M2M) connectivity to im-
prove productivity, streamline operations and control costs have
created a demand for private wireless mesh networks.
Embracing Industry 4.0. Embracing Industry 4.0 and IIoT are
some of the elements to future proof your environment. Indus-
try 4.0 is the move from traditional manufacturing and industrial
practices in combination with the latest smart technology. This
evolution represents a step towards higher productivity. However,
deploying a network to support the levels of connectivity required
in a dynamic and potentially hazardous environment can be ex-
tremely difficult. Ensuring an equilibrium between facility and
production growth with employee safety standards is imperative.
Many petrochemical plants operate multiple networks to ac-
complish separate communication needs for their employees.
This often outweighs the burden of maintaining a WiFi network
for data and a two-way radio WAN for voice, which can generate
high costs and can be a notable drain on resource demands for
daily operations.
The explosive and flammable gases—such as ethylene, pro-
pylene, butadiene and other potential vapors—found in petro-
chemical plants make maintaining safety in danger zones a top
priority. This process is even more complicated. To prevent
equipment from sparking and starting a fire, networking infra-
structure must be kept in an explosion-proof enclosure (e.g.,
ATEX 1, ATEX-2/C1D1 and C1D2 requirements).
From the initial deployment to complex day-to-day plant op-
erations, constant connectivity is required for the mission-critical
operations carried out in petrochemical plants. Signal loss often
equates to productivity loss and—in a worst-case scenario—can
put plant workers’ safety at risk. With petrochemical plants un-
dergoing significant expansion, choosing the wrong industrial
network solution could mean a plant’s investment is wasted due
to an unsuitable solution for connecting its operations.
A new way to enable petrochemical prosperity. A new
type of networking is necessary for petrochemical plants to em-
brace Industry 4.0. An IIoT-enabling network, more dynamic
than WiFi networks or two-way radio WAN, can provide the
petrochemical industry the prerogative to take advantage of the
innovative technologies that can maximize productivity, improve
safety and help organizations survive amid increased petrochem-
ical competition.
A solution for petrochemical plants is to implement a mesh
network topology—a resilient architecture constructed of nodes
that allows a multitude of devices to connect wirelessly. The re-
sult is a node network that can communicate data across the net-
work until it reaches its target destination. Interest in this tech-
nology is peaking due to its capability to handle the wave of data
expected because of the proliferation of IIoT-connected devices.
A mesh network can provide real-time, site-wide communica-
tions for the varying personnel and assets crucial to the running
of a petrochemical plant, including video cameras, smart meters,
sensors, laptops and smartphones.
However, some mesh networks can be too complex or unfea-
sible to install. Some need continuous, labor-intensive mainte-
nance. Plants need mobile wireless broadband connectivity that
can meet their demands and is simple, instantaneous and robust
in any application—a kind of autonomous network.
Critical connectivity. Critical connectivity is possible through
a combination of wireless network nodes and networking soft-
ware that utilizes any-node to any-node capabilities. This type
of network can continuously route data via the best available
traffic path and frequency for several nodes with extremely low
overhead. More advanced mesh networks can connect with
any WiFi or Ethernet-connected device to deliver low-latency,
Hydrocarbon Processing | JUNE 2021 71
 Digitalization
high-throughput data, voice and video applications.
An effective mesh network can reduce the total cost of own-
ership and simplify the work demands of employees by allow-
ing them to centralize their communications to a single device.
This is because, as a secure and converged solution for plants,
the right mesh network can reduce the need to maintain multi-
ple networks by supporting data, voice and video. Furthermore,
depending on the mesh network provider, certain nodes can be
deployed in any corner of a petrochemical plant without the
need for mounting in explosion boxes.
Wireless network nodes can be attached to both fixed and
mobile assets, including equipment, vehicles and facility infra-
structure. They can maintain multiple immediate connections
between peers while sending and receiving data on multiple fre-
quency bands. They need never break connections to form new
ones, meaning the connections are maintained until they are no
longer required. With high-bandwidth speeds across multiple
mesh node hops, a mesh network offers extremely low-latency
for real-time, plant-wide connectivity, even at the network edge,
making it the perfect solution for mission-critical operations
that require ubiquitous connectivity.
Mesh networking software can direct traffic by dynamically
load-balancing and routing data around signal blockages from
moving assets and potential interferences. This ensures that
data packets get to their destination via the fastest path avail-
able. It also eliminates the need for a controller node, meaning
that the network will have no single point of failure.
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72 JUNE 2021 | HydrocarbonProcessing.com
As petrochemical plants are spread out over vast areas, they
are forced to add new bandwidth-intensive applications to sup-
port continued growth. A superior mesh network topology can
rapidly evolve as the plant does. As more nodes are added, more
paths to direct mission-critical data are naturally formed. With
more paths, the network becomes more resilient.
A mesh network can also protect plants, which are potential
targets for high-risk network security attacks. The multi-lay-
ered, military-grade security for network traffic of a mesh net-
work makes it incredibly difficult to penetrate. It boasts multiple
cryptographic options, configurable data and MAC-address en-
cryption, and configurable per-hop, per-packet authentication
between nodes.
A trail to operational enhancement. Novel proprietary wire-
less network nodesa are built for hazardous locations where ignit-
able concentrations of flammable gases, vapors or liquids can exist
all or some of the time under normal operating conditions. The
author’s company enables plants to deploy these nodes on fixed-
and mobile-plant infrastructure and equipment to enable the
maintaining of multiple immediate connections between peers
while sending and receiving data on multiple frequency bands.
The author’s company’s kinetic mesh networksb, built with
proprietary wireless network nodes, can dynamically connect
the people, assets and devices that comprise every aspect of a
plant’s current and future operations. The network offers ben-
efits, which include reducing the total cost of ownership and
simplifying the work demands of employees by allowing them to
centralize their communications to a single device.
These self-healing, peer-to-peer industrial wireless networks
give petrochemical plant operators the communication flexibil-
ity, reliability, high performance and scalability they need to max-
imize productivity and innovation. In turn, risk is minimized,
downtime and costs are decreased, and security is increased to
keep them ahead of the competition.
The way forward for petrochemical plants. To tackle com-
petitiveness and move with the changing digital environment,
utilizing mesh-based, IIoT networks is essential. With more sig-
nificant pressure on the industry, ensuring cost-effectiveness and
safety is even more vital. These networks can provide plant-wide
connectivity to manage, monitor and optimize assets critical to
efficient, safe and competitive petrochemical operations. In ad-
dition, a complete IIoT solution can be deployed in a matter of
days or weeks as opposed to months. This means petrochemical
plants can quickly maximize this sector of industrialization.
NOTES
a
Rajant Corp.’s BreadCrumbs® wireless network nodes
b
Rajant Corp.’s Kinetic Mesh® networks
AL J. RIVERO is Vice President of Global Energy at Rajant and is
responsible for working and engaging with clients who seek to
implement a secure, reliable IIoT and mobility strategy for their
oil and gas operations. He works closely with clients to develop a
strategic technology transition plan that ensures a reliable and
secure migration of technologies. Mr. Rivero has more than 30 yr
of experience in various roles, ranging from staff engineer and
project manager to operations management and technology management within
Chevron companies. He also has extensive IT/OT integration project experience
having worked with SAP, JDE, ESRI and a variety of automation and SCADA/DCS
solutions within the upstream, midstream, refining and petrochemical segments.