A system to control effluent discharge from a chemical plant to meet stringent regulations. Field where approached by GSK to propose a solution to the problem of ensuring that the effluent discharges from the consistently met regulatory guidelines. Specifically these enforced guidelines require that any discharge be carried out at high tide and when the tide is beginning to wane. The system was required to be completely automatic and not reliant upon operator decision. It should be capable of storing predicted tide data for up to 1 calendar year. This tide data should be downloaded to the system from a remote PC. The system should have full automatic control of the storage tanks discharge valves. The system should be intelligent and perform regular self test’s to ensure the integrity of it’s data and overall operation. 

 A Field 2000 Series Programmable Control and Acquisition System was provided. The 2000 Processor is programmed to control the effluent holding tank discharge valves enabling the effluent to discharge into the sea at the appropriate time. The precise time of discharge is determined by the controller using pre-loaded tide tables. These tables are created from the POLTIPS software program, converted into a suitable format and downloaded into the 2000 series using a special utility. The processor stores 1 year worth of tide data. A dual system was provided giving full redundancy and ensuring that both systems agree on the appropriate time to discharge. The dual systems check each other’s Real Time Clock to ensure that they are within 3 minutes of each other. A greater discrepancy will generate an alarm to alert the system engineer. Further alarm notifications are generated on the following conditions ; System Fault ; End of Tide Table Data.