It will take me a few days to compile all my notes from a busy two days at HUG 2023, the annual Honeywell User Group conference this week in Orlando. Rather than a couple of hours of presentations with maybe one or two interviews like many conferences, we had two days of presentations and 1:1 interviews. Well organized and a lot of information. Of course, that means Honeywell has been active in product development.
Digital twins exist not only in discrete manufacturing. The first product covered is an extension of the Honeywell digital twin called Digital Prime. I’ll have more to add after digesting my notes with the team leader. Interesting (to me anyway having just purchased a Hyundai Ioniq 6 EV) is a new battery product called Ionic. The final product is Upstream Production Performance Suite containing interesting new sensing.
CLOUD-BASED DIGITAL TWIN
Honeywell Digital Prime solution—a cloud-based digital twin for tracking, managing, and testing process control changes and system modifications. Digital Prime is a cost-effective solution that allows users to test frequently for more accurate results while resulting in an overall reduction in reactive maintenance.
Digital Prime offers the highest level of quality control through an efficient and collaborative solution for managing changes, running factory acceptance tests and improving project execution and training without having to disrupt the production system. The platform can be used by companies in industries such as Oil & Gas, sheet manufacturing, and chemicals to test modifications during planned shutdown periods to reduce rework.
Most solutions require dedicated hardware, can be vulnerable to security breaches and don’t stay current to match live operations. Digital Prime addresses these challenges by providing a “lab system as a service” that continually updates to reflect changes that occur on the production environment, providing a dependable digital twin.
Digital Prime is a collaborative ecosystem with secure cloud-based connectivity, a virtual engineering platform, and built-in security protection. The digital ecosystem can be accessed by users across the globe through its subscription service using multi-factor authentication, enabling the customers to standardize across the enterprise.
HONEYWELL IONIC, A MODULAR BATTERY ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEM
Honeywell Ionic is a compact, end-to-end modular battery energy storage system (BESS) and energy management tool that offers improved energy density compared to what’s currently available on the market, while delivering a significant reduction of installations costs.
Installed with lithium-ion battery cells, the design emphasizes flexibility and futureproofing. Honeywell Ionic includes Honeywell’s Experion Energy Control System and a chemistry-agnostic Battery Management System (BMS). Experion helps users to manage and optimize energy use by improving uptime, enabling peak shaving and providing the ability to create a Virtual Power Plant. The BMS provides insight into performance at the cell level, and is configurable with advances in battery chemistry, insulating the end user from future supply-chain risks.
Due to its structural design and compact dimensions, the modular architecture provides a solution that can be deployed with a standard forklift and simpler site preparation – which significantly reduces installation costs. The modular design also provides higher energy storage per square foot, scalable from approximately 700 kilowatt hours (kWh) to 300 megawatt hours (MWh) of energy capacity in a standard configuration and lasting up to two hours at maximum rate of discharge. This solution provides customers a lower installed cost per kilowatt hour. The modular approach allows customers to incrementally add storage capacity at their own pace, not having to invest in more capacity than needed.
Honeywell Ionic BESS also offers a sophisticated set of safety capabilities, including three layers of the latest generation BMSt Systems (BMS) ensuring battery health and system safety. Additionally, it can be configured with Li-Ion Tamer, which further improves the safety of Li-ion batteries, sensing thermal runaway before it occurs.
Features of Honeywell Ionic include:
- Scalable and flexible ~700kWh building block for a forklift-able installation, significantly reducing the cost and time of installation
- Battery module is designed to accommodate cells from multiple battery suppliers
- Battery management system supports all battery types and chemistries, helping futureproof the core architecture of the system and facilitating system augmentation
- Liquid cooling to help equalize battery temperatures through charge and discharge cycles, prolonging battery life
- 1500VDC battery stack to maximize power conversion efficiency
- DC augmentation support
UPSTREAM PRODUCTION PERFORMANCE SUITE
Upstream Production Performance Suite (UPP Suite), an end-to-end solution that automates and digitalizes operation from the well head to the control room.
The solution is offered in three tiers – Lite, Supreme and Ultimate, providing a variety of control and monitoring options for operators.
Lite offers users a basic sensing and monitoring solution, complete with Honeywell Versatilis sensors and software. Supreme is a standard solution with process enhancement that adds a control and safety system, advance process control, and asset performance monitoring. Ultimate offers users the most comprehensive and complete solution, adding visual analytics cyber and network security, partner solutions and asset performance monitoring simulation.
Honeywell’s UPP Suite solution is available now.
