Accenture said that Marathon Petroleum Company (Marathon), a wholly owned subsidiary of Marathon Oil Corp, is deploying its wireless-based Life Safety offering at Robinson, Illinois refinery.
The offering integrates Wi-Fi and location-based technologies with multi-gas detectors to allow companies to remotely monitor incidents in locations previously not suited for wireless networks.
The Life Safety offering uses Wi-Fi technology in plant environments to alert central controllers of incidents and of workers’ locations.
The offering is designed for working environments such as refineries, chemical plants and other locations where dense steel infrastructure can make wireless safety offerings difficult to introduce.
Marathon, which has approximately 20 process units covering 1,000 acres, will use two variants of the offering: fixed Wi-Fi access points will provide integrated wireless coverage for distinct refinery units, and mobile Wi-Fi access points, which will be installed in trucks to provide flexible coverage for workers moving around larger open units.
These mobile units will then be connected to the Marathon’s central communications room by cellular networks, Accenture said.
The offering integrates the Ventis LS multi-gas detector from Industrial Scientific, Cisco’s Unified Wireless Network and Mobility Services Engine, and AeroScout’s Wi-Fi Tags, Location management and user front-end technology, MobileView.
Marathon Illinois refining division operations manager Don McCord said their deployment of this pioneering offering follows extensive evaluation of its functionality and costs.
"The tested offering gives our workers a greater sense of confidence that their safety is being monitored in ways that have never been possible before in our industry and in addition, its proven cost effectiveness has allowed us to deploy the offering across the entire refinery," McCord said.
