The Alagoas natural gas processing unit is operated by Petrobras' Exploration and Production Department. UPGN's objective is to process treated natural gas in order to obtain Residual Gas, LPG and C5+. Today, UPGN Alagoas receives an average of 150 tank trucks per month with 20 tons of LPG.
With the implementation of the unit in April 2003, there was a need for automation and integration of the three subsystems: ON-SITE, OFF-SITE and the truck loading terminal. The integration, made possible by Automind, allowed Petrobras to monitor, control and acquire all the plant's variables.
Automind implemented a Digital Distributed Control System (SDCD) to control and supervise the OFF-SITE area. The system used was the SDCD DeltaV from Emerson Process Management with redundant controllers. Work stations were installed in the control room, allowing the operator to supervise, activate/deactivate equipment and monitor the meshes, which are controlled in the SDCD controllers. The ON-SITE system is part of the same solution using DeltaV, but this system was developed by the American company PetroFac. The OFF-SITE system has also been integrated with Saab Rosemount's tank telemetry system, which monitors levels by radar measurement, with the LPG and C5+ storage tanks, and with the SCCT (Storage Loading System). Tank truck).
The load management software used in this solution was AUTOLOAD 5 from Emerson, which specializes in truck load management. The SCCT system has two workstations – server and client, which allow the supervision of uploads and monitoring of events and alarms. The server is responsible for redundant communication with all system components: TED's (Data Input Terminals), PRESET's (Pre-Determinators) and Scale (no redundancy). TED's are the interfaces between truck drivers and the system. At these terminals, drivers and their trucks are identified using a password and identification cards. They operate redundantly and are distributed at three points along the terminal: at the main entrance, at the entrance and exit of the scale. Together, the system components control the truck's circulation in the terminal, the LPG loading, and record the weight of the Tanker Trucks (CT's) when entering and leaving them, respectively.
After the implementation of the UPGN in Alagoas, the State began to consume the LPG (gross product of cooking gas) removed and processed within the State itself. Before UPGN-AL, the LPG consumed in Alagoas came from Sergipe or Rio Grande do Norte.