The goal of this presentation is to explain the challenges faced by Critical Infrastructure Operators while considering implementing Level 4 / level 3.5 network segregation. The conduit, as per IEC/ISA 62443, between Level 3.5 and Level 4 is paramount to achieve the right balance between cyber security protection of the ICS/DCS network against Outsider Threats and the business requirements. This is also the most challenging to implement because of the conflicting requirements between IT and ICS network users. In the first part of the presentation, we will quickly refresh the memory of the audience about the cyber security challenge imposed by two-way protocols compare to the classical IEC/ISA 62443 Zones & Conduits. We will review the different controls as well as their pro/con. In the second part of the presentation, we will introduce a new network segmentation control which is a two one-way gate in a single appliance. This is an elegant solution combining low impact, ease of use and no compromise on cyber security posture to achieve the highest possible cyber security on the critical conduit between Layer 3.5 and 4. In the third part we will present a full-fledged cyber security solution to address the difficult business case of Remote Maintenance and Remote Access typically through RDP.

Gilles Loridon (Author/Presenter)

CEO

Global Security Network (GSN)

Gilles Loridon, MSc in Computer Science from French IT Engineering school, IIE, has worked as IT/OT Consultant for more than twenty-five years and in the Cyber Security field for more than twenty years.
Gilles started his career in the CEA, the French Nuclear Energy Agency, in the Nuclear Emergency Response Team. This team is the first response in case of a nuclear accident. He developed real-time safety software related to gamma radiation dosage.
In 1995, Gilles was designing, developing, and implementing an Industrial Control System to manage the robots of the main European warehouse of a leading fashion retailer.
In 1997, he moved to the USA and worked for the US government as a project leader for the development of innovative Economic Intelligence System.
In 1999, Gilles joined the European Leader in Economic Intelligence and Cyber Security, CEIS, as a Project Leader and later, took the leadership of its Middle East Branch. During the last twenty-one years as CEO of Global Security Network, he has been leading and implementing successful cyber security projects for governmental Agencies, Critical infrastructure companies, and Military Departments in Europe, Africa, as well as in the Middle East. Gilles’ main role is to the Subject Matter Expert on ICS/SCADA Cyber Security and on the relevant standards (ISO 27001, IEC 62443, ISF IRAM) and regulations (US NRC 5.71, UAE NESA, etc…). Gilles is a certified ISA/IEC 62443 Cyber Security Fundamentals Specialist.
Since 2010, Gilles is the Cyber Security principal consultant for UAE FANR regarding Barakah Nuclear Power Plant Cyber Security Licensing as well as Safety/Security for LOLA and AIA.
Gilles is participating in many conferences in the MENA & APAC regions presenting, peer-reviewed, ISC/SCADA cyber security papers.
Gilles conducted many Information Security Awareness sessions in the Oil & Gas and Nuclear sectors for hundreds of employees with a focus on ICS/SCADA users.
Gilles developed and delivered Safety and Security training for the UAE Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation including the APR 1400 Safety Systems and the Safety Assessors Training.

Today’s automation systems are incredibly complex, with thousands of measurements, integrated applications, and more interdependency than ever before. The primary mechanism for continuous improvement to the process and operations within an industrial facility consists of daily configuration changes on a wide range of multi-vendor automation systems. The vast majority of the changes are unmanaged and undocumented, which makes determining what authorized or unauthorized changes occurred almost impossible. This leaves industrial facilities vulnerable to cyberattacks from external threat actors and undocumented or unauthorized changes made by insiders. OT asset management is foundational to an effective OT cybersecurity program. OT asset management includes inventory management, configuration management, vulnerability management, and the detection of unauthorized changes. Effective OT asset management can improve production safety and reliability while reducing OT cyber risk. OT asset management also delivers the depth and breadth of information that cybersecurity professionals, as well as control system engineers, need to secure ICS assets effectively. In this session, we'll review five real-world asset management use cases and their cybersecurity implications, explore how OT asset management can provide deep visibility into the cybersecurity posture of industrial assets, and identify strategies to improve OT asset management and cybersecurity within your own organization.

Syed M. Belal (Presenter)

Global Director, OT Cybersecurity Consulting

Hexagon AB

Syed M. Belal is the Director of OT Cybersecurity Consulting Services based in Manama, Bahrain. Syed has more than 14 years of experience in industrial control systems (ICS) and operational technology (OT) applications with a focus on networking and cybersecurity. He joined PAS, part of Hexagon PPM, in 2017, after a nine-year tenure as Schneider Electrics' Lead Cybersecurity Consultant in Dubai, UAE. He has specific expertise in industrial automation, SCADA, control, and safety systems often used in critical infrastructure. Today, as the Director of OT Cybersecurity Consulting Services, he is responsible for the strategy, growth, and support of PAS’ OT cybersecurity business globally.

Syed has a B.S. (summa cum laude) in Electrical Engineering (Control and Communication Systems) with a minor in Computer Engineering (Computer Communications and Networks) from the American University of Sharjah in UAE and an M.B.A. (with distinction) in Business Strategy from the University of Strathclyde in the United Kingdom.

Syed has presented at numerous industry programs and conferences around the world. He Completed the ICS Cybersecurity programs offered by the United States Department of Homeland Security ICS-CERT (Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team). He holds a multitude of industry certifications including CISSP®, CISA®, CISM®, and ISA/IEC-62443 Cybersecurity Fundamentals Specialist.

Despite significant technological advancements in cybersecurity protection in recent years, the Industrial Control Systems (ICS) or Operational Technology (OT) environment continues to witness increased number of successful cybersecurity breaches. This suggest that an extensive reliance on technology-driven strategy has not resulted in effective protection for ICS/OT. Human error has been identified as the weakest link in the cybersecurity chain in many of the recorded ICS cybersecurity breaches because most of the technological errors were human-enabled. Responses to these human factors have been narrowly focused on preventing the social-engineering exploitation of human vulnerabilities to gain access to ICS environments through training. The principal objective of this paper is to address the shortcomings of the narrow approach outlined above and present the integration of human reliability (i.e., the probability of humans conducting specific tasks with satisfactory performance) into ICS risk assessments/audits and early architecture as a foundation for secure ICS environments. The paper further presents two different architecture designs that highlight the importance of human reliability in the effectiveness of overall ICS security.

Adetola Olawale (Author/Presenter)

Auditing Specialist – Operational Technology (OT/ICS) Cybersecurity

Saudi Aramco Oil Co (Aramco)

Tola is a highly accomplished cybersecurity consultant with nearly 25 years of expertise with multinational energy corporations. He has worked with top global brands like Saudi Aramco, ExxonMobil, Shell, BG-Group Upstream, and Honeywell, demonstrating a superior ability to make a visible impact through strong leadership and technical knowledge.
Tola has a deep understanding of Cyber Security issues facing the energy industry with a particular focus on industrial control systems and risk management (ISO 27001, ISO 27002, ISA-99/IEC 63442, Achilles). He is passionate about managing and achieving the safe delivery of key transformation projects, cutting across infrastructure, data, security, simplification, business change, and process improvements.

Tola enjoys, mastering and refining existing concepts and technology platforms, developing them into winning business solutions that achieve measurable ROI. He is an adept traveler, having worked across 17 countries on over 100 global projects and 37 in client companies both in head office and frontier environments. He holds over 32 industry-leading certifications and has won multiple awards for cybersecurity solutions and innovations.

Collaboration between central engineering and JNGL operating facility resulted in evaluating a new trend in OT security related to anomaly detection. Using a combination of machine learning and artificial intelligence, SCADAGuardian platform manages to detect anomalies in process control networks. Through the use of span ports, the solution automatically establishes all aspects of the environment in terms of the number of assets, their operating systems, software versions, network interactions, vulnerabilities and so. It creates a baseline behavior that goes all the way down to process variables and any change in the range of a PV is automatically detected. The solution also establishes graphical representation of the entire environment showing each asset and its interaction, which protocol it uses and immediately flags any operational or security anomalies. The solution has be kept in learning mode and once established is switched to protection mode. Advanced tool is also available that can take action with network security devices to automatically block any malicious activity.

Mujali Al Khaldi (Author/Presenter)

Industrial Cyber Security Engineer

SITE

Managing Consultant

Mujali is an Industrial Control Systems Cyber Security Engineer with more than 10 years of experience in cyber security compliance, risk management and Control Systems and Networks administration. Mujali has a bachelor degree in Software Engineering from King Fahd Univeristy.

Risk reduction should be a priority for any business to protect the employees and prevent or mitigate a specific hazard and consequently, the risk of costly accidents or equipment replacement. A standard relay can’t be used in a Safety Instrumented Function (SIF). Whenever it is necessary to use a relay complying with IEC 61508 and the relevant industry standard (61511), we must refer to a safety relay. A SIL (Safety Integrity Level) relay (Safety Relay) has a known and guaranteed ability to perform a given Safety Function and reach a specific safe state on demand (i.e. open a relief valve or activate a Fire Extinguishing System) resulting in safe operations for the personnel and the equipment. Typical cases of application of a SIL certified relays are represented by a controller that can’t meet the power requirement (V or A), or when the multiple contacts are required, or the controller safety function must be inverted. Safety relays are simple to operate and have a clear structure. The use of safety relays has become widespread due to their compact design, high reliability, and most importantly they meet all the required standards. They have become an integral component of any new plant or machine where safety functions are necessary. SIL Certified Relays are used for critical loops where careful consideration should be given to Line and Load Monitoring. In applications, such as F&G systems, line and load monitoring are fundamental, and Smart Relays become a valuable tool.

Mauro Perego (Author/Presenter)

Global Sales Director

GM International srl

Mauro Perego is Sales Director EMEA at GM International, a leading Italian company that designs and manufactures a full range of intrinsically safe products that meet the highest quality requirements ensuring the strictest production standards. Mauro has more than twenty-fives years’ experience in the Instrumentation, Automation and Safety Industry spent at HIMA, Emerson Process Management and Schneider. Mauro is FS Eng (TÜV Rheinland, #15307/17, SIS)

This abstract is about a special, smart, quick, cost effective and accurate qualitative method to assign Safety Integrity Level (SIL) to a Safety Instrumented Function (SIF) during a Hazard and Operability Study (HAZOP) without conducting a dedicated SIL Assessment Study for all SIFs. For over a decade since the modern performance approach for Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS) was introduced by the issuance of IEC 61508 and IEC 61511 standards SIFs are being assigned SIL rating using, in most cases, a Layer of Protection Analysis (LOPA). While LOPA is an excellent quantitative method and delivers good results it is rather slow as it requires a study session on its own following the HAZOP and relies on failure rate data developed by third party organizations. The failure rate data is worked out by conducting Fault Mode Effects and Analysis (FMEA) rather than field gathered. Now that many in the industry have an extensive experience in SIL Assignment and Verification predicting a SIF SIL rating during a HAZOP without conducting a SIL Assessment Study is fairly easy and quite accurate at times. In this presentation a description of how this skill, which is a qualitative process, can be regulated, embedded and adopted in the HAZOP to assign SIL ratings to most SIFs and only use LOPA for complicated SIFs deployed to prevent higher risk hazards. The proposed method limits the usage of LOPA, reduce the total time and effort required for the SIL assignment process as conducted now.

Ahmed Al Damluji (Author/Presenter)

Engineering Specialist

Saudi Aramco Oil Co (Aramco)

Ahmed is an Engineering Specialist in P&CSD. He holds a BSc degree in Control Systems Engineering and a Master degree in Engineering Studies. Ahmed is a UK Chartered Engineer, a Member of the Institute of Measurement and Control and the Engineering Council of the UK. Ahmed has over 25 years experience in various fields of Instrumentation and Process Control System design, construction, plant operation, engineering support, capital project support, standards development, studies and industrial incident investigations. Ahmed’s work in P&CSD is focused on Safety Instrumented Systems, Safety Integrity Levels and Layer of Protection Analysis.

Industrial Control System (ICS) cybersecurity attacks is getting more complex every day. The latest TRITON, sometimes refer to as Trisis, malware attack imitated beyond other known industrial cyber-attacks. The technique of the attack was directly interacting with a Safety Instrumented System (SIS). SIS is designed as the last line of automated process safety defense for industrial facilities to prevent equipment failure and catastrophic incidents such as explosions or fire. As a result, the regulation and standard bodes start addressing this delicate balance between process safety and security. This paper provide an overview of IEC 61508, IEC 61511, and IEC 62443 standards that address safety and security design. The paper also provide the techniques to bridge the common design gaps between the two domains.

Khalid Al Ghamdi (Author/Presenter)

Consultant

Saudi Aramco Oil Co (Aramco)

Khalid Suliman Al-Ghamdi is computer networks and systems consultant with 30+ years of working experience. During his carrier, he supported numerous projects for enterprises, hospitals, universities, and power/water/oil plants. Khalid is a member of many international standard’s bodies. Recent focus on Blockchain as well as project implementations and standards developments in the area of ICS cybersecurity to identify, remediate, and set future plans for handling cybersecurity incidents at enterprises and governments levels

No matter what advanced technological solutions or operational procedures are in place, when operating in high hazard manufacturing industries such as oil and gas, petrochemical, chemical and refining operational risks are dynamic and constantly changing. While risk can never completely be eliminated, it can be better managed through a variety of tools, technologies and techniques. There are several trending lines of technology that make use of digitizing the data collection methods by integrating IT and OT and perform a real time dynamic comparison between the operational behavior against the design aspects. So, using a combination of visualization techniques, analytics and the standards, we can understand what the systems we have in place are telling us and demonstrate that they are working as designed and intended. It is important to remember that data and information needs to be presented in a simple and meaningful way so that all departments and organizations can understand the information and have a meaningful discussion around the issues, and possibilities for resolution. The way to achieve this lies in the digitization and simplification of two key areas – risk management and operations management – and the everyday integration Provide an enterprise-wide operational risk view to understand where to pay attention Dynamic operational risk visualization for quicker, safer decision-making Digitized records of plant safety performance captures plant intellectual property

Mohamed Rashed (Presenter)

Technical Sales Consultant - Process Safety CFSE

Schneider Electric

Mohamed Rashed is a Technical Sales Consultant at Schneider Electric, specializing in Process Safety. With over 20 years of experience in Process Automation Engineering, he has a profound understanding of process safety and control principles. Mohamed’s expertise enables him to deliver customized technical solutions to clients within the industrial sector. He has honed his ability to effectively convey intricate technical concepts to diverse stakeholders, emphasizing the importance of implementing process safety solutions. Mohamed is passionate about cultivating enduring client partnerships and ensuring top-tier technical support and guidance for every client. He is committed to fostering a safety-first mindset, utilizing Schneider Electric’s leading Triconex safety systems, and introducing innovative digital process safety solutions that go beyond expectations, ultimately driving positive change.

The chemical sector is undergoing an intense period of transformation brought about by the ever-increasing potential of digitalization to improve profitability, productivity, and safety in what is a particularly complex industry. Production processes are extremely energy intensive and require multiple activities with high interactions. ABB is driving digital transformation in the chemicals sectors through developing analytical modeling and modular automation, to optimize asset usage and identify inefficiencies. Big data, Artificial Intelligence and AR/VR are leading technologies used to enable such transformation. Real world examples of solutions will be presented to demonstrate how chemical industries are adopting digital technologies to generate significant competitive advantage. In addition, the business model shift needs to include a comprehensive cybersecurity system. Better visibility and control over demand and supply-side variables can yield benefits from a cost savings point of view across the enterprise

Ronan OSullivan (Author/Presenter)

Vice President / Hub Business Line Digital Manager India, Middle East, and Africa

ABB

Ronan O’Sullivan is the Vice President of Digital for ABB within India, Middle East, and Africa for Energy Industries. Previous to this role, he was the Vice President of Service for ABB within India, Middle East and Africa for Oil Gas & Chemicals. Ronan has spent the past 3 and a half years in this region, and before this time he was based out of Houston Texas for ABB. He started his career with ABB as an automation engineer.

BHGE Flare Flow Measurement & Combustion Control Solutions optimize operation cost & enable Environmental Regulations compliance. Flare systems are primarily installed for safety & mass balance purposes at any processing plants. These flare systems are used to vent and burn off hydrocar-bons and other unwanted gases under routine and emergency conditions, such as an unexpected shut-down. Today, there is much international awareness to measure, monitor and control flaring process for both environmental and economic reasons. Most flares in refineries & Petrochemical plants today use some form of steam assist flare to reduce smoking and promote mixing and cooling at the flare tip. In many cases, traditional flares were controlled by adding more steam to reduce smoking. Smoking was extinguished; however, the flare would be emitting unburned dangerous gases causing much more damage to the environment since combustion was not fully realized in addition to economic losses out of over steaming Through this paper, we present a unique and reliable patented flare solution which helps operators to better control combustion efficiency while optimizing operating costs.

Ramy Mohamed (Author/Presenter)

Technical Manager

GE Sensing

Products Manager for flow metering solutions – GE Measurements Solution Division driving Business growth for flow metering solutions in MENAT & SSA regions , Have Long experience in the Process instrumentation fields that extends over 20 years. Throughout my career with reputable instrumentations suppliers E&H and Yokogawa , EMERSON and GE gained a wealth of experience working in several Service , sales , Projects and Business Developments roles for Process instrumentation and flow measurements specifically

Most, if not all, compressor vendors perform a PTC-10 test of the compressor performance at the manufacturer’s facility. This test determines how closely the as-built performance of the compressor matches the predicted performance, and is required by the purchaser prior to authorizing its shipment to its destination site. This approach has two main problems: (1) The on-site piping and driver are different to that of the PTC-10 test; and these factors could have a significant impact on the location of the compressor’s surge limit line on-site. (2) Most modern surge control systems are inferential in nature, i.e. they utilize an inferential algorithm and a set of measured variables (pressures, temperatures and flowrates) to calculate the compressor’s operating point; which is then compared to the surge point in the controller's memory. These two sets of data (the operating point and the surge point) may have simplifications or errors. It is thus recommended to conduct an on-site surge test of the new compressor (or even a long running machine) in order to eliminate (or reduce) these errors. The result is a factual Surge Control Line that is correctly located, producing optimum surge control without unnecessary recycle.

Medhat Zaghloul (Author/Presenter)

Regional Technology Manager

Compressor Controls Corporation (CCC)

Medhat Zaghloul is CCC’s Regional Technology Manager for the Europe, Middle East and Africa Regions with Compressor Controls Corporation (CCC), based in the Abu Dhabi Office. Medhat joined CCC in 1993 and has over 41 years of experience in the oil and gas industry with 15 years specific to the instrumentation and controls for the petrochemical industry. He is responsible for the development of technical solutions and control applications and providing technical guidance and support. Mr. Zaghloul holds a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the Cairo Institute of Technology in Egypt (now Helwan University).

In the APC projects many people focus in increasing the amount and quality of their products. However, the optimization of utility consumption and saving the energy will lead to more benefit and minimize the production cost. The good point that having both goals has no conflict. So, we can increase the production with less energy and utility consumption. Fuel gas, Hydrogen and steam are key examples that can play a big role in increasing the model benefits.

Hassan Alabdulmohsin (Presenter)

APC Engineer

Saudi Aramco Total Refining and Petrochemical Company (SATORP)

My name is Hassan Alabdulmohsin. I Joined SATORP at end of 2009 as process control engineer. I Complete the Factory acceptance test , commissioning and start up of the Package by 2012. Start the next challenge as cyber security and network administrator in 2015. Finally work as APC engineer at the beginning of 2017.

Current technological developments are automating mundane yet largely complex operations that were previously performed by people. But while these early stages in automation are producing promising results, they are failing at dramatic rates. What could the future hold that is reasonable yet produces an evolutionary step toward autonomous operation of oil & gas facilities? The need is there for operators who are vigilant, continuously aware of the process at all times, free of distraction, responding to process variances to avoid process upsets while maximizing profit and, when the unavoidable happens, responding timely to abnormal conditions with safe and appropriate actions. This is the goal and only automation can provide it, but can it be trusted? This talk will present how this might be realized in the near future.

Kevin Triplett (Author/Presenter)

Engineering Specialist

Saudi Aramco Oil Co (Aramco)

Kevin Triplett has 30+ years of experience in semiconductor manufacturing, consumer electronics design, defense systems integration, web-based application development and automation systems for batch and continuous processes. His Masters is in artificial intelligence and several software applications he developed are still in use decades after commissioning.

Saudi Aramco Process Instrumentation and Automation Standards have been undergoing major enhancements and optimization. Improvements were made in order to enhance process safety, to improve the reliability of equipment and systems and also to address human factors throughout the instrumentation and control systems lifecycle. The standards revisions were also made to align more with industry standards, primarily NFPA, ISO, IEC, API and ISA and to inject lessons learned from different Saudi Aramco projects and operating plants. This presentation will provide the audience an overview on process instrumentation and automation standards role in process safety and will clarify how human factors and mechanical asset integrity are addressed in these engineering standards. The presentation will also highlight new solutions and technologies which become part of Saudi Aramco process instrumentation and automation standards in relation to process safety. "Tentitive" Table of Contents:  Management of Process Safety  Engineering Standards Role in Process Safety (PS)  Addressing Human Factors (HF) in Engineering Standards  Addressing Mechanical Asset Integrity (MAI) in Engineering Standards  How Saudi Aramco Automation Standards Addressing PS, HF & MAI  Ending Remarks

Fawaz Al Sahan (Author/Presenter)

Senior Engineering Consultant / IIOT Leader / Instrumentation Standards Committee Chairman

Saudi Aramco Oil Co (Aramco)

Fawaz AlSahan is the Chairman of Saudi Aramco Instrumentation Standards Committee , IIOT Leader and the Executive Board Member of ISA Saudi Arabia section. Fawaz is a voting member of multiple technical committees in ISO IOGP, UL and the Saudi Standards, Metrology and Quality Organization (SASO). Fawaz has more than 24 years of experience in Instrumentation and Process Automation (design, innovation, digital transformation, standards development, technical and maintenance support) . Fawaz is a certified Engineering Consultant (SCE) and a Certified Automation Professional (CAP). Fawaz received many national, regional and international awards including the “The King Award for Inventors and Gifted. Fawaz has five granted patents, author and co-author of multiple handbooks and papers in renowned magazines and journals. Fawaz delivered many papers including Keynote speech and Keynote address in many national, regional and international conferences. Fawaz teaches several courses on process measurement, control valves, and pressure relief valves.

Because of low quality flame scanners or wrong setting, some customers in Middle East are regularly forced to over- bridge safety chain of their combustion process, to be able to start their process. This leads to high risk of explosion of the heater/ boiler and even the entire plant. The aim of this presentation is to show how clients can ensure high safety setting and at the same time can avoid regular flame lose. So they can prevent such shut-downs and can start combustion process in a safe way. Many end users pay now more attention to SIL certification (Safety Integrity Level) and expect flame scanners to support safety chains up to level SIL 3. Flame scanner electronic has also to withstand the high temperature of ME region. Heater and boiler release heat radiation additionally to the extreme high summer temperature of up to 55 C. Therefore, 85 C ambient temperature is becoming a must in many applications. This presentation introduces also flame stability software. This software signal, which is built in flame scanners, allows detection of changes in the flame characteristics in the early stage. Burner specific pre-warnings become possible and allow the operator to optimize combustion parameters and ensure safe operation.

Abbad Cheik (Author/Presenter)

General Manager

DURAG Group

Abbad has been with DURAG for 7 years, as its regional Manager in Middle East & Africa. He is also the head of DURAG Middle East Office (in Dubai Jafza), which is responsible for technical & sales support of DURAG’s customers and partners in this region.
He has vast experience in Combustion Technology and Environmental Monitoring.
Abbad studied mechanical engineering at University of Cologne in Germany and MBA at UEL London.

Salim Anqour (Presenter)

Senior Sales & Service Engineer

DURAG Group

Salim finished his Mechatronics Engineering degree from Jordan. He joined DURAG Middle East in 2019 and responsible for technical & sales support of DURAG’s clients & partners in the whole region. He is experienced in process control, combustion and environmental instrumentation in addition to various monitoring & data acquisition systems.

Because of low quality flame scanners or wrong setting, some customers in Middle East are regularly forced to over- bridge safety chain of their combustion process, to be able to start their process. This leads to high risk of explosion of the heater/ boiler and even the entire plant. The aim of this presentation is to show how clients can ensure high safety setting and at the same time can avoid regular flame lose. So they can prevent such shut-downs and can start combustion process in a safe way. Many end users pay now more attention to SIL certification (Safety Integrity Level) and expect flame scanners to support safety chains up to level SIL 3. Flame scanner electronic has also to withstand the high temperature of ME region. Heater and boiler release heat radiation additionally to the extreme high summer temperature of up to 55 C. Therefore, 85 C ambient temperature is becoming a must in many applications. This presentation introduces also flame stability software. This software signal, which is built in flame scanners, allows detection of changes in the flame characteristics in the early stage. Burner specific pre-warnings become possible and allow the operator to optimize combustion parameters and ensure safe operation.

Abbad Cheik (Author/Presenter)

General Manager

DURAG Group

Abbad has been with DURAG for 7 years, as its regional Manager in Middle East & Africa. He is also the head of DURAG Middle East Office (in Dubai Jafza), which is responsible for technical & sales support of DURAG’s customers and partners in this region.
He has vast experience in Combustion Technology and Environmental Monitoring.
Abbad studied mechanical engineering at University of Cologne in Germany and MBA at UEL London.

Salim Anqour (Presenter)

Senior Sales & Service Engineer

DURAG Group

Salim finished his Mechatronics Engineering degree from Jordan. He joined DURAG Middle East in 2019 and responsible for technical & sales support of DURAG’s clients & partners in the whole region. He is experienced in process control, combustion and environmental instrumentation in addition to various monitoring & data acquisition systems.

Free Space/Non-contact Radar Level transmitters are one of preferred technologies in many of industrial applications now a days. Three different frequency bands have been used in free space Radars i.e - C-band (~6 GHz), K-band (~26 GHz), and W-band (~80 GHz). There has been some hype in Industry that higher frequency will give better performance but, different process conditions have direct impact on the suitability of each frequency for different level measuring applications and conditions. Another important effect of the frequency is that it impacts the antenna beam width and beam angle. The beam angle and beam width is determined by the antenna design in combination with the microwave frequency. High frequency signals can achieve small beam angles with small antennas. Equally, small beam angles can be achieved with low frequency radars, but this requires larger antennas. Even the best radar in the world will give poor results if not installed correctly. Conditions present in the installation must be considered. Accuracy is dependent upon a combination of frequency, antenna selection, installation /process conditions and most important factor dielectric constant of the product. It is not just the frequency of a radar that is important, but antenna design, smart algorithms and installation conditions play a big role in successfully measuring the accurate level in process tanks.

Sivaji Nemalipuri (Presenter)

Marketing Manager

Endress+Hauser

Having more than 25 years experience in Process field instrumentation and working with Endress & Hauser for more than seven years in Middle East region.

With the evolution of technologies like non-contact radars and more options available in radiation technology, it is now possible to have more designs where the vessels need not be shutdown for any instrument maintenance. Normally bypass chambers are used for Displacers, GWRs and Magnetotrictive devices to provide process isolation when required. This is mainly because direct mounted instruments provide very little option for process isolation unless in a dry well. We will discuss how, with the new 80 Ghz radar, a process isolation can be achieved easily for level measurement which will get rid of issues like bypass chamber blockage and different levels in bypass chambers in vessels with mixed products. Additional we will demonstrate options how the radiometric measurement can get rid of issues for interface measurements

Alexis Alexander (Author/Presenter)

Project Manager

VEGA

Alexis Alexander is the Product Manager for VEGA Technique Middle East. Apart from offering technical Support, designing customer specific Solutions and contributing to the product design, he has an extensive background on field services for radiation based level and density measurements used in complex processes