Oman Cement Company (OCC) has taken delivery of the latest digital control systems to boost its operational efficiency, increase availability, lower costs and drive sustainability.

The Muscat-based cement factory, which has an annual cement production of 3.5 million tonnes, now has the latest version of ABB Ability System 800xA, which integrates its three process lines into the single digital platform, optimising performance on the lines.

The solutions were installed by ABB Switzerland, which has also replaced older controllers in their final lifecycle phase with AC800M models.

Teams from Oman Cement Company and global technology major ABB Switzerland collaborated to complete the engineering, supply, installation and commissioning of the ABB systems. ABB secured two separate contracts for the work with OCC.

Bashar Al Farsi, Head of Instrumentation and Control, OCC. “With the long-term support of ABB, we look forward to continued success, now with the latest digital control system across our three process lines. We have already identified time and cost savings, and will drive towards greater efficiencies and sustainability targets as we aim to be the number one cement manufacturing company in the sultanate.”

ABB Ability System 800xA, ranked by the ARC advisory group as the world’s leading distributed control system (DCS) platform over the last 20 years, can implement advanced process control methods.

“Connecting all three lines on one platform from a single partner versus multiple deliveries from different parties harmonises the engineering and technology standards across the plant. This also helps gain synergies for operations and maintenance teams by ensuring overall interoperability and consistency as well as reducing complexity,” says Max Tschurtschenthaler, Global Cement Lead, ABB Process Industries.

ABB’s new system also has a solid foundation to build up digital applications and integrate other process areas of the OCC plant on the same single platform.

“Deep domain knowledge and long-term customer relationships remain key factors of our performance and this was shown with our recent project with Oman Cement Company,” says Ramzi Akkawi, Regional Sales Manager North Africa and Middle East for Mining, Aluminum and Cement, ABB.