Abstract: This paper discusses the necessity and concept of integrated management and control in enterprises under the background of global informatization, the system composition and key technologies for the implementation of integrated management and control, and points out the powerful functions of OPC communication technology in enterprise information integration, Ethernet as an ideal platform for connecting the enterprise management layer and the field control layer, and the important role of configuration monitoring software in the construction of integrated management and control. Finally, the paper presents the design and implementation of integrated management and control in a light hydrocarbon recovery unit with examples. Keywords: Management-control integration, OPC communication, Ethernet Brief Study of Management-Control Integration Technology and Its Realization on Light Hydrocarbon Recycle Set Jin Qibing Wang Yanbo Information Science and Technology School of Beijing University of Chemical Technology Abstract: This paper presents the necessity of adopting management-control integration, its concept, system structure, and key technologies in its realization. It also illustrates the powerful function of OPC communication technology in system information integration, the ideal network platform by Ethernet in the connection between management and field control layers, and the importance of configuration and monitoring software. Finally, an example is provided to show the design and realization of management-control integration on a light hydrocarbon recycle set. Keywords: management-control integration, OPC communication, Ethernet 1 Introduction In today's world, the wave of information technology is sweeping the globe. With the intensification of international market competition and the emergence of global energy shortages, the adoption of high technologies such as information, computers, and automation to transform traditional enterprises has become an inevitable trend. Under the condition of safe production, enterprises must unify the traditionally isolated control information silos and establish a sound management network to fully allocate, balance, and control resources from all aspects, maximizing the enterprise's competitiveness. Simultaneously, a close collaborative chain must be formed between the market, operations, development, and production to improve market responsiveness and product transformation flexibility. Therefore, an integrated management and control system, based on the principles of high quality and high output, low consumption, low cost, low pollution, and maximizing overall benefits, becomes a powerful means for enterprises to modernize management, scientifically manage production, and enhance market competitiveness. 2. Integrated Management and Control The integrated management and control system utilizes advanced technologies such as computers, networks, databases, automatic control, and interface communication. Based on the production process control system, it processes, analyzes, integrates, stores, and disseminates information on enterprise production management and process control. Employing modern enterprise production management models, it establishes a comprehensive system covering enterprise production management and basic automation. It organically integrates and optimizes real-time data and production management information from the entire production process, achieving enterprise information sharing and integration of production and operation processes. The integrated management and control system is a large-scale digital system that can form a two-way, serial, digital, and open automatic control system. It encompasses a vast amount of industrial field information, including enterprise-level production process control, product quality control, equipment operation status monitoring, and energy detection and monitoring. It covers the entire internal production management process of the enterprise, enabling the planning, scheduling, and control of enterprise production resources, increasing product output, improving product quality, reducing production consumption and operating costs, and enhancing the overall operational efficiency and market competitiveness of the enterprise. 2.1 Characteristics of the Integrated Management and Control System: 1) It integrates information from control and information networks, establishing a comprehensive real-time information database to provide a basis for enterprise optimization control, production scheduling, and planning decisions; 2) It establishes a unified database management function for the enterprise, ensuring data consistency, integrity, and operability; 3) Managers can access and understand various enterprise information from anywhere through a standardized, user-friendly, and unified graphical interface; 4) It enables remote monitoring and optimization of the control network, as well as remote diagnosis and maintenance of the control network. 2.2 System Composition A typical integrated management and control system can be divided into three layers: the field control layer, the process monitoring layer, and the enterprise management layer. The field control layer is the direct control level, realizing continuous control and regulation of the process and performing process data acquisition, conversion, and diagnosis. The process monitoring layer is used for production process management, providing process engineers and automation engineers with a human-machine interface for process management, process flow design, and control schemes. The enterprise management layer is built on the enterprise network and is used for enterprise management such as operations, inventory, finance, and production scheduling, thereby achieving integrated enterprise control from the bottom up. (See Figure 1). 3 Key Technologies in Integrated Control 3.1 OPC Technology Since the enterprise field control layer may use control devices such as DCS and PLC from different manufacturers, if the interface specifications of the devices are not unified, system communication will be extremely complex, and integrated control will be impossible. OPC technology solves the communication barriers between field control, process control, and management layer applications. OPC (OLE for Process Control) is an open industrial standard applied to the control field, created and developed based on Microsoft's COM and DCOM technologies. Its development purpose is to establish a unified data access standard between industrial control equipment and application software. This interface standard can not only be applied to a single computer, but also support communication between various applications on a network, as well as communication and data acquisition between applications on different platforms. The basic idea of ​​OPC is: each hardware manufacturer supporting the OPC interface standard develops an OPC server for its equipment, mainly responsible for obtaining data from the hardware device and storing it temporarily; application software supporting the OPC interface, as an OPC client, reads and writes information of the hardware device through interaction with the OPC server, as shown in Figure 2. Therefore, accessing process data through the OPC server can overcome the differences between heterogeneous network structures and interface protocols. Upper-layer applications can obtain production process data without caring about the underlying hardware characteristics and the details of communication between the OPC server and the hardware. 3.2 Ethernet Technology Among various network technologies, Ethernet technology is currently the most ideal network construction choice for integrated management and control. It can meet all the following requirements: high transmission rate, high reliability, anti-interference capability, real-time transmission determinism, adaptability to distributed requirements with multiple transmission media, scalability and maintainability, standardization, openness and interoperability, large-scale application and future-oriented development. Ethernet is widely used in enterprise management and office environments, providing many useful services such as email and web browsing. Ethernet technology can also serve as the information transmission backbone of a factory's underlying control network, connecting system monitoring equipment and advanced intelligent field devices using the TCP/IP protocol, allowing factory management to directly access the control field. The most typical application in industrial settings is Ethernet + TCP/IP. Sensors and transmitters based on Ethernet + TCP/IP can directly become network nodes, and their control parameters and status can be directly transmitted and shared within the enterprise information network, thus avoiding the integration difficulties caused by multiple protocols in DCS and FCS. 3.3 Configuration Monitoring Software When implementing integrated management and control, monitoring configuration software and real-time databases are among the core software components. The monitoring configuration software can communicate with all control devices, collect real-time data, and send it to the real-time database. Simultaneously, real-time production monitoring and management are completed. The real-time database provides real-time data management, storage, and retrieval tools, adopting standardized industrial technical standards such as OPC, ActiveX, COM/DCOM, and ODBC, and has an open architecture, making it easy to interconnect with other systems. The monitoring configuration software is a software platform at the monitoring layer of the automatic control system. 4. Integrated Management and Control of Light Hydrocarbon Recovery Unit A light hydrocarbon recovery unit under a petrochemical company in Sichuan was built in the 1980s. The process mainly involves recovering light hydrocarbons from natural gas, i.e., a continuous process from compression, cooling, dehydration, refrigeration, and heat exchange of raw natural gas to fractionation into liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and light oil products. The unit includes raw gas pretreatment, expander refrigeration, cryogenic separation, and distillation. The unit underwent a control system upgrade in 2002, adopting Foxboro A2 DCS for production process control, but the human-machine interface uses Wonderware's Intouch configuration software. DCS control improved the safety, stability, and reliability of the unit. Under the existing DCS control system, information such as control status, equipment operation, product quality, and yield could only be accessed at the workshop level and summarized manually through forms. This resulted in inflexible information transmission, significant time delays, and severely hampered the company's IT progress. The project adopted InfoPlus software for real-time data monitoring. The control network was built using Ethernet technology. Since telephone lines offered both high communication quality and cost-effectiveness, they were used for network connection between the site and the company office building. The key to the integrated control implementation of this unit was developing an information transmission interface from the DCS device. Using a self-developed OPC communication computer, data was transmitted via a local area network, allowing users with assigned permissions throughout the plant to view the unit's status at any time, understand real-time operational data, and monitor product processing. Furthermore, to enable internet connectivity, a web server was developed using Dreamweaver + ASP.NET. The integrated control structure of this light hydrocarbon recovery unit is shown in Figure 3. The successful implementation of the integrated management and control project for the light hydrocarbon recovery unit has enabled managers and other management personnel at all levels to check the status of the unit at any time without leaving their offices, understand the real-time operating data of the production site, and grasp the processing status of the products. Decision-makers at all levels are well-informed, which has promoted the company's management methods to develop in the direction of informatization, paperless, proceduralization, scientification, and speed, updated the company's management philosophy, and improved management level and efficiency. References 1 Qiu Jinlun, Cao Min, et al. Visual C#.NET Programming Tutorial [M]. Beijing: Tsinghua University Press, 2006 2 Wang Hui, Luo Huang, et al. Chinese Dreamweaver 8 Web Page Production [M]. Beijing: Tsinghua University Press, 2006 3 Liang Bo, Fang Geng, Liu Ming, et al. Tutorial on Local Area Network Construction, Management and Maintenance [M]. Beijing: Metallurgical Industry Press, 2002 4 Hu Qiang, Zhao Yingkai. Application of OPC Technology in Data Communication between DCS and Factory Management Network. Industrial Instrumentation and Automation Devices, 2002(3): 25-28 Author Biography: Jin Qibing, male, born in 1971, graduated from Northeastern University in 1998 with a doctoral degree in Control Theory and Control Engineering, professor; research direction is advanced control and its application in industry, modeling method research and optimization, intelligent control, enterprise informatization, and integrated management and control. Wang Yanbo, male, born in 1981, Han nationality, is a Master's student in Control Theory and Control Engineering at the School of Information Science and Technology, Beijing University of Chemical Technology. His research focus is on integrated control and management. Contact address: P.O. Box 357, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, No. 15, North Third Ring Road East, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100029, China. Telephone: +86 13811619853 Email: [email protected]