MechChem Africa March 2020

⎪ Chemical, petrochemical, oil and gas ⎪

SouthAfrica’s largest petrochemical company selected Hytera’s TETRA mobile radio solutions to improve remote monitoring and communication across its two large locations in Sasolburg and Secunda. Connecting SA’s largest petrochemical with a mobile radio system a powerful SCADA system at the individual locations.ThisSCADAsystemtransmitsinfor- mation via SDS using Hytera infrastructure.

A Hytera solution One challenge during the integration of the equipment was the arrangement of the base stations. The possible locations outside of the hazardous areas were precisely calculated to enable optimal mobile radio coverage. As a result, a continuousmobile radio supplyexists over the entire 4 000 km 2 company complex in Secunda, including inside of buildings. Both locations feature several base stations that are outside of the company site. This allows employees or the company’s own fire crew to be reached in emergencies. The mobile radio system at Secunda, the larger of the two locations, shows an enor- mous operational performance during peak loads: up to 52 000 calls are made every day. In this case, 8 900 subscribers, 800 groups and 110 fleets are registered in Secunda. In theprocess, different call priorities guarantee an effective communication that is tailored to the respective situation. The flexibility and technical performance, even at peak loads, are additional highlights of the extensive system. q

A safe working environment and good monitoring of machines and personnel is essential for an effec- tive operation at Sasol’s two large locations –Sasolburg andSecunda. Coal is ex- ploited over a large area, and partially highly explosion-prone substances are processed. For this reason, when the companyneeded reliable voice and data transmissions for the sites, they sought the help of Hytera, a manufacturer of radio transceivers and radio systems, who employed the powerful TETRA mobile radio system for both locations. Coalmining and theprocessing inSecunda as well as gas processing in Sasolburg consist of a complex sequence of automated process steps. An error in one of these steps leads to an interruption of the processing chain and, as a result, to enormous losses. Sasol opted to digitise its management processes by invest- ing in technology that would provide reliable voice and data transmissions covering a large surfaceareatoovercomethecommunications problems.

Hytera, opted to connect the petrochemi- cal giant with the ACCESSNET ® -T radio sys- tem,whichoffersemployeesacommunication system with high voice quality for safe and efficient work. Different applications supplement the scope of functions of the ACCESSNET-T IP system. For example, radio calls are recorded and played back using the TETRA voice recorder. For every recorded call, including group calls, extensive information such as time stamp and subscriber information is stored. The user-friendly interface and imple- mentedsearchfunctionenableuserstocallup previous connections quickly and easily. The AVL/GIS functions ensure an increased safety at the company site through the localisation of handheld and vehicle radios. With themultifunctional ACAPI interface, external applications can conveniently be connected to the TETRA mobile radio sys- tem. For the mobile radio network for Sasol, Hytera collaborated with one of its partners, Expert System Solutions (ESS) who provided

March 2020 • MechChem Africa ¦ 13