Distributed processing system for gas odorization

Abstract

This paper proposes an advanced industrial controller prepared for hazardous industrial environments, namely natural gas odorisation. Its design and conception is focused on robustness and reliability, with high flexibility to allow local and remote monitoring and control. Instead of a centralized approach, where the computational load relies on a unique processor, we propose a distributed architecture, where the various control tasks are distributed among the existing microprocessors, like in a DCS system, but yet exhibiting a fast response time between inputs and outputs, like a PLC.The proposed architecture presents a high degree of flexibility and scalability, in order to allow an easy addition of new modules. By resorting to a script language interpreter installed in each I/O board, they may be reconfigured to a different functionally, thus increasing the system reliability and safety. An efficient and synchronized communication between boards ensures that all memory boards share the system status information, thus allowing each board to process individually. With the same performance and flexibility of a high-end PLC controller with full extras, like tactile HMI and TCP/IP remote control, we present an affordable gas odorizing system, which can be easily adapted for other industrial applications.