Training in Operating Plant with DCS in the Romanian’s Refineries CRISTIAN PATRASCIOIU 1 , NICOLAE PARASCHIV 1 , MARIAN POPESCU 1 , ANTOANETA MANEA 2 , TUCU GHEORGHE 3 , MIRCEA GHENOIU 4 1 Computer and Control Department, 2 Chemical Process Department 1 Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiesti, 2 Petrobrazi Ploiesti, 3 Honeywell Romania, 4 Petroconsult Ploiesti Bd. Bucuresti 39, Ploiesti ROMANIA Abstract: The Distributed Control System (DCS) represents the modern control equipment for refinery. The radically changes of the operator’s job have need the knowledge of the DCS equipment, refinery processes and process control. In this context, one of the objectives of the Romanian educational system is the development a flexible structure, which to obtain a good qualification of the refinery engineers and operators. This paper presents the efforts and achievements of the Research Center Advanced Chemical Process Control of Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiesti, in the creation of a training laboratory for distributed control systems operation. The first element of the training system consists in hardware of laboratory, development software for DCS and PLC and training software using emulated DCS. Training program is the second element needed for development of a training system. The authors present the elements of the Romanian training system: the syllabus of the training courses, the training manuals and testing assessments. It is also presented the experience within the training program dedicated to Romanian operators from the Petrom OMV– Petrobrazi Subsidiary and to Vietnamese operators from Dung Quat Refinery. Key-Words: - refinery, DCS, training, software, course. 1 Introduction The Distributed Control System (DCS) represents the modern control equipment for refinery. Starting from the 1990’s the DCS is the most important equipment for the refinery control systems. The implementation of DCS equipments has change the operation personal structure of the chemical plants. The new job DCS operator is beginning. These radically change of the operator’s job have need the knowledge of the DCS equipment, refinery processes and refinery process control. In this context, one of the objectives of the educational system is the development a flexible structure, which to obtain a gut qualification of the refinery operators [1]. This paper presents the joint efforts of Petroleum - Gas University of Ploieşti, SC Petrom – Petrobrazi Subsidiary, SC Petroconsult Ploiesti and SC Honeywell Romania representatives in order to build up a training system in the distributed control system field. 2 Architecture of training laboratory The training system is composed by the following subsystems: a laboratory room dedicated to training and research, software simulators of some distributed control system, devices for studying the real distributed control systems. 2.1. The hardware of laboratory The laboratory has six training stations and a server dedicated to training and multimedia presentation of the courses, figure 1. The training devices of laboratory are: the distributed control equipment HC900 (Honeywell) and Programming Logic Controller OCS IC300CS053 (Fanuc). Fig. 1. Image from training laboratory. 4th WSEAS/IASME International Conference on EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES (EDUTE'08) Corfu, Greece, October 26-28, 2008 ISSN: 1790-5109 75 ISBN: 978-960-474-013-0