My ISA Story: Reducing Environmental Pollution, Operating Costs With ISA Standards and Procedures

Summary

As a Registered Professional Engineer in the state of California, I have been so grateful for my experience with ISA over the past 45 years. ISA has recognized my contributions as a Life Member and as Fellow Member in 2005, in recognition of the design, development and implementation of advanced control and networking systems for the process and aerospace industries.

My involvement with ISA started by instructing ISA courses throughout the US and the world:

• TS06 - IT and OT Survival Basics for I & C Personnel
• TS12 – IT and OT Advanced Skills for I & C Personnel

As an Independent contractor, teaching these courses many times throughout the US and worldwide lead to business opportunities to help clients upgrade their control system networks to improve plant performance, safety and security, while reducing operating costs. All our projects implement compliance with environmental emission control requirements and network cybersecurity standards and implement the principles as taught in these courses. I facilitate collaboration between all stakeholders, including business directors, engineers, customers, vendors, regulatory agencies and communities, to provide the highest-level solution. Consider these specific examples:

The Chevron refinery

The Chevron refinery in El Segundo, California, was required to shut down a catalytic cracking unit to eliminate the flaring of 30 million cubic feet of ISOMAX refinery waste gas per day to meet CA State air emission requirements. This would result in a 25% reduction in its total capacity. At the same time SoCal Edison was building a new power station on the coast and looking for a fuel gas supply. During my negotiations with the refinery, they agreed to modify the existing gas processing system to remove natural gas components (Methane, Butane, Propane) from the refinery waste gas to produce the natural gas product to meet SoCalGas and ISO quality requirements. This procedure is not normally done in US refineries. I also negotiated with both organizations and state and local agencies to build a 6-mile pipeline to transfer the natural gas from the refinery to the power station.

I also negotiated with SoCalGas to blend the remainder of refinery natural gas into their coastline pipeline. Control system modifications were provided at all locations to monitor natural gas flow to meet quality requirements and measure natural gas flow for fiscal accountability between all participants.
The results of this project were a significant reduction in refinery waste gas, allowing for a significant increase in refinery throughput, improving their gross profit by over $1,200,000 per year, lowering the cost of fuel gas for the SoCal Edison power plant, and significantly reducing environmental air pollution in both locations.
 

LAX: Los Angeles Airport

This project included designing and installing a new SCADA and control system network for Jet fuel management in the Fuel Farm control room. LAX management decided to construct a new set of fuel tanks (Jet a/SAF Blend) to be sure that the jet fuel coming from four different suppliers was retained in one set of tanks for fiscal accounting and quality control, removal of water solids and any other impurities. In addition to being asked to coordinate the implementation of the new control system network, I facilitated coordination between LAX fuel management and 4 suppliers of Jet Fuel to assure equal delivery opportunities. I configured the control system to measure flow rates, tank levels, jet fuel quality, and accounting to ensure that all providers were paid. Accounting document formats had to be approved by all suppliers, LAX, and US Department of Energy. Once approved, jet fuel is then transferred to the second set of tanks (Jet A) for distribution through underground conduits to all terminal locations to be supplied to aircraft via truck mounted calibrated metering systems (the Airport Tank Farm).

BP Marine Terminals, Long Beach California

A Supertanker typically contains 2 million barrels (84 million gallons) of liquid, typically crude oil from distant countries. It takes about a day to unload to an onshore facility, then distribute to refineries. Many tankers arriving at Long Beach terminals use their own shipboard pumps to discharge their cargo, causing significant air and water pollution in the harbor. I first managed the Installation of a custody transfer system for these world class marine tanker terminals, each tanker transferring 80,000 barrels of crude oil per hour with a total accuracy of better than 0.10%. More significantly, I negotiated with SoCal Edison to install AC powerlines to the terminals, then plug-in adapters for the ship to plug into. Ships then used this cleaner energy supply to run their pumps, eliminating air and water pollution. Installation included Integration of Flow Computers, PLCs, automatic proving and sampling systems, Operator Interface, SCADA, accounting systems.  Modicon PLC, OMNI Flow Computers, Jiskoot Samplers, in-line density and water cut analyzers.

I also developed Foreign Trade Zone and US Customs Applications which were accepted by all parties.  Presentation of this work at ISHM, International School of Hydrocarbon Measurement in 2005.

Coachella Valley Water District (CVWD)

Winner of the 2021 MISAC Excellence Award, and the ISA Water Utility Category. Commonly referred to as the Low Desert, on the contrary, the CVWD is one of the most fertile areas in the US, due to a 100-mile canal from the Colorado River, plus numerous privately owned underground reservoirs. As Senior Consultant In conjunction with CGR Management Consultants and Aviat Networks, we created and implemented a CVWD SCADA Master Plan. My support included the installation of an MPLS network (Multiprotocol Label Switching) of 26 wireless wide area network (WAN) Public Safety channels with over 400 field devices at 64mbps, meeting the report requirements of the CA State Stormwater Protection and Flood Control Resources Board, and coordination of project management of irrigation, aquifer levels and wastewater recovery between many districts for over 600,000 residents in a 1,000 square mile area.

Also: Domestic Water, Recycled/Nonpotable Water
The End Result of this project was improved management and accountability of all water resources and improved water quality throughout the region. Project cost: $4,569,000.
 

Cybersecurity

I was a member of the first ISA99 committee on establishing Industrial Cybersecurity Standards, eventually evolving into the ISA/IEC 62443 series of standards, developed by the ISA99 committee and adopted by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

• Subsequent development and teaching of courses IC32, IC33, IC34, - the ISA Industrial Cybersecurity Certificate Program.
• Industrial Control Systems Cyber Security (301) Training by the US Department of Homeland Security.
• Member of the US Coast Guard Sector Los Angeles-Long Beach Cybersecurity ISA/IEC 62443 Cybersecurity Certificate Program

Professional Engineering (PE) Review Course: I teach a four-day course each year in Southern California in preparation of the PE exam.  Exam and license Registration are governed by the California Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists (BPELLSG). NCEES: The National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) is the national organization dedicated to developing standardized examinations for engineers and surveyors. The Principles and Practice of Engineering (PE) exam tests for a minimum level of competency in a particular engineering discipline are designed for engineers who have gained a minimum of four years post-college work experience in their chosen engineering discipline. Pass rate > 75%.

Cal State Fullerton: Course developer and instructor, Industrial Networks, Certificate in Industrial Controls Technology.

Publications
Liptak, Bela G: Instrumentation, Automation and Engineering Handbook, 5th Edition : Author of 5 chapters in the publication released in 2016:

• Calibration of Fiscal Metering Systems
• Bi-Directional Fiscal Metering Systems
• Multiphase Metering Systems
• Density Measurement
• Dewpoint Measurement

The Instrument and Automation Engineers’ Handbook (IAEH) is rated as the Number 1 process automation handbook in the world.
 

Conclusion

These are just a few examples of success stories on how applying ISA standards and implementing ISA Control Systems and Cybersecurity technologies will help continue to provide more cleaner environments and lower operating costs.

Many thanks to my ISA colleagues in Durham, NC and in Los Angeles, California. I look forward to working with you. Just ask me, and I’ll be happy to respond. Thank you.
 
_{As the International Society of Automation (ISA) celebrates 80 years of advancing the field of automation, we asked the automation community to share their personal experiences and stories. You can view all the submissions here.}