Schneider Electric meet all the needs of RecyCoal

Full automation and control solution provided for 13-million-tonne Rossington Colliery clean-up project

HAVING embarked upon an environmentally led coal-recovery and restoration scheme at the former Rossington Colliery in South Yorkshire, Doncaster-based waste-coal recovery specialists RecyCoal have committed to the clean-up of 13 million tonnes of colliery spoil.

This will involve yielding more than 950,000 tonnes of coal for local electricity generation, in addition to restoring the land within a five-year time frame. In doing so, RecyCoal will create 70 new jobs and establish an operational training centre at the site; recruiting and educating new employees for their expanding business locally as well as abroad.

The Rossington site itself covers approximately 112ha, which, once restored, will form a valuable and sizable part of local public open space with opportunities for nature conservation and public recreation.

Historically, RecyCoal’s systems have been largely manually controlled, but the Rossington project is the first time the company has incorporated a complete automation and control system.

The system needed to provide a high level of visibility for RecyCoal with robust reporting capabilities on any aspect of process, production, maintenance and downtime readily available. Given the complexity of the Rossington project, the capacity to present and disseminate such data to key management personnel on demand was vital.

After a lengthy and detailed recruitment process, RecyCoal appointed Schneider Electric to supply and support the control, automation, distribution, IT and security equipment for the project. Schneider Electric’s ability to deliver a complete turnkey solution was provided through the company’s PlantStruxure solution.

At the automation level, a system comprising Vijeo Citect redundant server SCADA and a Vijeo Historian database was selected. The SCADA servers run on Magelis iPCs with APC uninterruptible power supply back-up.

The main control system comprises a Modicon Quantum hot-standby pair and an Ethernet backbone (via an array of ConneXium Industrial Ethernet switches) connected to associated plant equipment, including Modicon STB distributed IO, Preventa safety systems, Magelis HMI, Altivar variable-speed drives and an Okken machine-control centre.

For superior reporting capabilities, Vijeo Historian provides fully automated data via both on-screen visuals and paper records, according to user and department-specific requirements. Bridging the divide between management and plant operations, Vijeo Historian’s intuitive interface and active data transfers, feed and integrate data from the control level up to the business systems.

For RecyCoal, this translates into valuable and holistic data being shared with a variety of personnel, in real-time or historically, as well as being viewed locally or via remote connections, thereby allowing staff immediate access to the information they need. As a result, RecyCoal’s management team is able to make more informed and timely decisions, minimizing costly production delays, whilst facilitating improved efficiencies across the entire site.

Operators can log all downtime events and, via a series of drop-down selections, specify the nature of a stoppage whether it is electrical, mechanical or process based. Reports provide pinpoint accuracy on stoppage causes, greatly enhancing RecyCoal’s efficiency and drive towards continuous improvement.

Moreover, the modular nature of the hardware platforms and software applications provide RecyCoal with a high degree of future scalability and flexibility.

To minimize inefficiencies caused by power quality issues, UK-based system integrators Roomfoss Control Systems have delivered specialist support and co-engineering on motor control centres for the coal recovery process in both the wash plant and the filter-press plant. Each control centre houses more than 50 motor-control cabinets along with Power Factor Correction to help ensure consistently high-quality power is delivered.

A combination of medium-voltage (MV) switchgear and transformers are also being used at the Rossington site, courtesy of Schneider Electric’s local facility in Leeds, which is the headquarters and manufacturing base for MV switchgear and transformers.

Site-wide security is managed via five of Schneider Electric’s Pelco cameras, which utilize state-of-the-art security technologies. The cameras seamlessly integrate into the Vijeo Citect SCADA interface, allowing real-time footage to be incorporated into the SCADA screens.

Part of the unique RecyCoal process involves the use of density meters from Berthhold Technologies. These are subject to stringent legislation from the National Counter Terrorism Security Office (NaCTSO), which includes 24h surveillance, physical barriers, procedures, permits and audits.

Phil Rymer, Schneider Electric’s RecyCoal account manager, commented: ‘Whilst there are many components contributing to the success of this project, the focus is on our scope of expertise and capacity to deliver a complete turnkey solution for RecyCoal.

‘The close working relationship between the project’s plant engineering personnel and the Schneider Electric UK team has resulted in all requirements, including electrical control, automation, distribution, IT and security, plus services such as training, spares and support, being consolidated and delivered with ease.

‘RecyCoal are now able to optimize planning and engineering efficiencies, as well as minimize dialogue with what would otherwise have been a long list of individual suppliers. Project deployment costs as well as the implementation time frame have been significantly reduced as a result of dealing with a complete solutions provider.’