Marl Chemical Park

Originally, the control technology of the various buildings in the Marl Chemical Park was to be largely separated - for technical and organizational reasons. Analog devices, not network-capable, were completely sufficient for this purpose. In 2012, however, the site operator wanted to prepare for the future and switch to a scalable, networked solution integrating all buildings and facilities.

Infracor wanted to provide its customers and facility managers with a building management system (BMS) via a large network. In addition to Evonik, its subsidiaries and affiliates, 12 other companies are located in the Industrial Park. They should be able to monitor and control their systems conveniently via their own PCs - also remotely. However, without having to worry about software and hardware implementation.

A challenge for the experts at Kieback&Peter: Before they could set up the software operator stations, they first had to prepare the hardware for the migration. Specifically, that meant: Retooling numerous existing analog devices for IT integration and getting a wide variety of “isolated solutions” - many also coming from third parties - ready to handle a common language so that they can work together smoothly in the new central system. And all this without interrupting operation.

In the Marl Industrial Park, the Kieback & Peter team successively integrated existing analog technology into the new IT environment. On the room level, it equipped the buildings with DDC110 sensors and room control modules. The integration of the existing analog technology made it necessary to transfer further control elements from Kieback&Peter into a current DDC system. These include analog cassette controller systems, heating control processors and ventilation control processors.

At automation and management level, the experts from Kieback&Peter integrated existing DDC3000 automation systems alongside newer DDC4000 systems. They also connected bus module controllers for controlling heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems.

Kieback&Peter’s solution virtualizes existing communication structures and enables secure and flexible remote access. The monitoring, reporting and management of the system is handled by Neutrino BMS Version 9. The installed software module SM99 client BMS ensures that several customers can access the server of the BMS simultaneously via PHWIN. Kieback&Peter linked various third-party systems at management level with the Neutrino BMS via BACnet^®.

Norbert Soethe from the Ruhr branch summarizes Kieback&Peter’s solution: “An industrial park of this size is a world in itself. Due to the complexity of the project, we have installed almost everything that Kieback&Peter has offered over the last 35 years in Marl. The trend towards digital system integration in building automation can therefore be clearly seen in the chemical park.”