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6 Utility systems
This chapter contains an overview of the various systems that provides
utilities or supports for the main process.
6.1 Control and safety systems
6.1.1 Process control
A process control system is used to monitor data and control equipment on
the plant. Very small installations may use hydraulic or pneumatic control
systems, but larger plants with up to 30,000 signals to and from the process
require a dedicated distributed control system. The purpose of this system is
to read values from a large number of sensors, run programs to monitor the
process and control valves, switches etc. to control the process. Values,
alarms, reports and other information are also presented to the operator and
command inputs accepted.
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