Endress+Hauser, Yokogawa, BASF, and Covestro have completed a large Ethernet APL test designed to demonstrate stable communications across process instrumentation, network equipment, and control infrastructure from several suppliers.
The installation was assembled at Endress+Hauser’s site in Reinach, Switzerland, combining a Yokogawa CENTUM VP distributed control system with Plant Resource Manager asset management, field switches, network equipment, and instruments from several manufacturers.
Building on earlier trials, the project increased the range of participating equipment and used multiple network rings. Private virtual local area networks segmented communications while allowing field information to reach the control and asset management layers.
Ethernet APL brings two wire Ethernet to process field devices, carrying power and digital communications over the same connection. Data rates of 10Mbit/s full duplex provide substantially more bandwidth than conventional process protocols while retaining long cable runs and options for intrinsically safe installations.
The technology is intended for chemical, pharmaceutical, oil and gas, water, food, and other process plants where instruments are distributed over large areas and may operate within hazardous zones.
Several days of operation allowed the participating companies to examine stability and interoperability under representative conditions. The test covered the complete architecture rather than only communication between individual devices, including switches, control systems, engineering tools, and asset management software.
Process plants rarely purchase every component from a single supplier. Instruments are selected according to measurement duty, approvals, materials, accuracy, and installed base, while control and network infrastructure may remain in service through several generations of field equipment.
Faster configuration, richer diagnostics, and easier access to device information depend on products behaving consistently across supplier boundaries. An open protocol offers limited value where engineering tools, switch configurations, or device profiles still require proprietary workarounds.
The latest trial follows the arrival of Ethernet APL flowmeters for process installations, adding commercially available field equipment to the network architecture demonstrated in Reinach.
Greater bandwidth can make detailed condition and diagnostic data available without additional wiring. Valve behaviour, sensor status, calibration information, device temperature, signal quality, and maintenance alerts can travel alongside the primary process measurement.
Plants still need to decide which data is useful, who owns each alert, how it enters maintenance workflows, and how long records should be retained. Large volumes of unfiltered diagnostic information can burden operators without improving equipment availability.
Network design introduces additional engineering at field level because ring resilience, switch capacity, addressing, time synchronisation, power budgets, hazardous area rules, cable characteristics, and cyber security must be considered together.
Established sites present the more difficult adoption route. Existing plants may contain several generations of analogue, HART, fieldbus, and proprietary equipment, and complete replacement is rarely justified during a single shutdown.
Ethernet APL installations will therefore coexist with older systems through gateways, remote input and output equipment, and staged migration. Engineers must preserve reliable operation while parts of the plant move onto a new communications architecture.
Cyber security becomes more significant as Ethernet reaches deeper into the process environment. Segmentation through virtual networks can limit communication paths, but it must be supported by access control, asset inventories, secure configuration, monitoring, patch strategies, and clear responsibility between operational technology and corporate information technology teams.
The participation of BASF and Covestro gives the project direct operator involvement. Process manufacturers need architectures that can be engineered, commissioned, maintained, and modified over long asset lives, not merely devices that communicate during a controlled demonstration.
Commissioning practice will need to change as more device information becomes available through the same network. Loop checks, proof tests, calibration, replacement, and fault finding must preserve both process safety and network integrity, with technicians trained across instrumentation and digital communications.
Large trials can expose compatibility problems before projects commit to procurement, while giving suppliers a shared reference against which firmware, device profiles, engineering tools, and network components can be tested.
Device replacement must remain straightforward during plant operation, with approved substitutes, preserved addressing, verified configuration, and clear procedures for restoring configuration without introducing a wider network fault.
Ethernet APL will enter plants gradually because process assets operate for decades and shutdown opportunities are limited. Wider adoption will depend on lower engineering cost, useful diagnostics, reliable interoperability, and lifecycle support long after the original commissioning team has left.
