Chemicals + Raw Materials

Pumps, steam networks, storage tanks and reactors in the chemicals and raw materials industry run around the clock, often in hazardous areas and in plants that are decades old. Failures are expensive and can be dangerous, while documentation requirements keep growing. IoT sensors can be retrofitted without touching the process control system: they report condition, fill level and energy consumption wirelessly and make maintenance plannable. Here you will find solution examples already running in chemical plants and chemical parks.

IoT in the chemical industry: what already works in chemical plants

Chemical industry 4.0 means the digitalisation of chemical production: plants, machines and storage report their own condition data instead of someone reading gauges on inspection rounds. In practice it rarely starts with a big platform, but with a specific problem: a pump that keeps failing, a steam network run with too much buffer, or a tank farm whose levels nobody knows in real time.

The chemicals and raw materials industry has particular requirements. Processes run around the clock, often in hazardous areas, and many plants are decades old. IoT solutions therefore have to be retrofittable, offer ATEX-certified devices and must not put the control system at risk. The following applications have already been implemented by operators in chemical plants and chemical parks.

Typical IoT applications in the chemicals and raw materials industry

Predictive maintenance for pumps and rotating machines

Pumps, motors, compressors and agitators are the most common cause of failures in chemical plants. Battery-powered vibration and temperature sensors are attached to the outside of the housing and transmit their readings via LoRaWAN®. The analysis detects imbalance or bearing damage before the machine stops. At CHEMPARK, CURRENTA used this approach to monitor the river water pumps in Krefeld-Uerdingen: 70% less downtime and 30% longer service life. More on the use case vibration monitoring.

Monitoring steam networks and steam traps

At many chemical sites, steam is the most important energy carrier. Because measuring points in the network are missing, power plants usually run with a thermal safety buffer. Steam traps are often checked only once a year, so a faulty trap can lose steam unnoticed for up to eleven months. With LoRaWAN® steam network monitoring, wireless sensors continuously report network temperatures and the condition of the steam traps. Using a digital twin of the steam network, CURRENTA lowers the feed temperature by up to 20 °C at the same steam quality.

Leak detection for steam, compressed air and media

Leaks cost energy and can become safety-critical. Sensors on pipes, steam traps and compressed air networks detect pressure drops, temperature changes or ultrasonic signals and raise an alarm before an inspection round finds the spot. One example is IoT compressed air monitoring; more implementations are listed under the use case leak detection.

Chemical tank monitoring and level measurement

Chemicals, raw materials and intermediates are stored in tanks, silos and IBC containers, often spread over large areas or at customer sites. Telemetry units measure the level and send it to a platform over the cellular network or a wireless network. Orders and delivery routes are then planned automatically and overfills are prevented. With the remote monitoring of oil, gas and chemical storage tanks, delivery costs fall by up to 30% per litre. More on level and distance measurement.

Process monitoring on reactors, furnaces and plants

For reactors and furnaces, the condition of the refractory lining determines how long they can run. In Stade, Air Liquide monitors a new reactor operating at around 30 bar and above 1000 °C with a thermal camera and an IoT gateway and feeds the data into the process control system: condition-based maintenance instead of plant shutdowns. At Daubert Chemical, process visualisation in chemical production cut the number of unresolved issues by 75%.

Batch tracking and traceability

In recipe and batch production, it must be clear which raw material batch went into which product. When dosing systems and manual scales are connected to a central system, batch data is created automatically and goes straight into the ERP. Epple Druckfarben AG implemented exactly this: digital batch traceability with ERP integration. More on batch traceability.

Energy monitoring and CO₂ reduction

Chemical processes and plastics processing need a lot of energy. Meters and sensors per plant show where it is used and provide the data for energy management and CO₂ accounting. In plastics processing, energy consumption per injection-moulded part fell by 11%. At Air Liquide in Stade, the energy efficiency of the modernised plant rises by about 15% and CO₂ emissions fall by around 15,000 tonnes a year. More on IoT-based energy management systems and emissions monitoring of gases and fluids.

IoT in chemical parks: retrofitting existing plants instead of building new ones

In chemical parks and large industrial sites, pumps, pipes, tanks and utilities are spread over many hectares. Running new cables to every measuring point rarely pays off there. That is why brownfield operators rely on battery-powered wireless sensors: a site-wide LoRaWAN® network with a few gateways covers an entire site, and the sensors run for years without a battery change.

The second point is the control system. Condition data for maintenance and energy does not require any intervention in the process control system. Following the principle of the NAMUR Open Architecture, it travels over a separate channel to the platform, while control and safety functions remain unchanged. This also works for remote assets: on oil and gas wells, WIKA records annulus pressure wirelessly and reduces site visits by more than 75%.

Explosion protection, field level and OT security

Where an explosive atmosphere can occur, only approved devices may be used. Many wireless sensors for vibration, temperature and pressure are therefore available in ATEX-certified versions; the sensors in the steam network example withstand surface temperatures of up to 500 °C. At field level, Ethernet-APL brings Ethernet into hazardous areas, with power and data on two wires and cable lengths of up to 1000 metres: Ethernet-APL in the process industry.

The more is connected, the more important operational technology security becomes. A chemical group first had its OT networks analysed passively and has since been monitoring the communication of its control systems for attacks and fault conditions: OT security monitoring in chemical production.

How to start an IIoT project in an existing plant

Start with an asset whose failure or losses you can put a figure on, such as a critical pump, a section of the steam network or a tank farm. Clarify early on whether devices sit in a hazardous zone, how data may leave the site and who in operations responds to an alarm. A pilot with a few retrofitted sensors shows within a few weeks whether the data holds up. The solution is then rolled out to further plants, usually over the same wireless network and the same platform.

Finding industrial IoT providers with chemical industry references

Every solution example on this page names the implementation partner, the technology used and in most cases the user, including CURRENTA at CHEMPARK, Air Liquide, Aurubis and Epple Druckfarben. This shows you who has already delivered a comparable project in a chemical plant. If you briefly describe your project via the contact form, we will put you in touch with suitable providers.