The Project: Scale & Centralize a Pharmaceutical Facility’s Control System

Acorda Therapeutics is a leading biotech company that develops new treatments for neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s and MS (multiple sclerosis). Their facilities are comprised of countless moving parts that must coordinate, communicate, and cooperate in order to assure recipe consistency and safety, as well as facility security. When they decided to expand their facility in Chelsea, MA, they reached out to E Tech Group to bring their facility automation vision to life.

Acorda Therapeutics wanted a powerful, integrated control system to automate and streamline a range of manufacturing processes, cleaning procedures, and a comprehensive safety system. We were ready to take on the challenge of supporting their pharmaceutical facility’s expansion with advanced process automation solutions.

The Challenge: Especially Complex Control System Architecture

Acorda Therapeutics needed a turnkey control system that integrated all of their automated processes and cleaning steps for the:

• Feed and Spray Drying Systems
• CIP (clean-in-place) System
• Supporting Ethanol Supply
• USP Purified Water Supply
• Waste Systems

E Tech Group accomplished this using four PLC processors. The integrated control system also coordinates CIP recipes with a SQL database and interfaces with various equipment vendor-supplied systems over Ethernet. The control system stores alarms, process data and user actions, and provides a user interface for the operation and visualization of automated sequences and equipment.

The upgraded automation system also consists of a number of equipment vendor-supplied control systems, an expansion of existing Controlled Area Monitoring System (CAMS), and provides Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), recipe management, historical data collection, and reporting.

The following equipment is located in the process area:

• Feed Train 1&2 Aqueous Formulation Tanks
• Feed Train 1&2 Aqueous Blank Tanks
• Feed Train 1&2 Solvent Formulation Tanks
• Feed Train 1&2 Solvent Blank Tanks
• Spray Dryer Drying Chamber
• Spray Dryer Bag House

The following equipment is located in the utility areas:

• Spray Dryer Heaters and Condensers
• USP Purified Water Storage Tank, Heater, Distribution Pumps and Distribution Loop
• Clean-In-Place Skid and Distribution Loop
• Condensate Receiver Tank
• Temperature Control Units
• Autoclave
• Parts Washer
• Clean Out of Place Washer
• Clean Steam Generator
• Vacuum Pump and Receiver Tank

The following equipment is located in the tank farm:

• Ethanol Storage Tank, Heater and Distribution Pump
• Waste Storage Tank and Transfer Pump
• Process Vent Carbon Adsorption Drums

The design of this pharmaceutical automation system was a strategic effort by E Tech Group’s automation engineers, as an elegant control system solution becomes more elusive with every additional component. But as usual, our talented team found a way.

The Solution: Integrate & Secure the Expanded Facility Automation System

The new control system is a PLC- and SCADA-based system utilizing Allen-Bradley ControlLogix L73 and L75 processors with 1719 Ex Series intrinsically safe I/O, 1734 Point Series I/O, Festo solenoid manifolds, and Allen-Bradley PowerFlex VFDs.

The I/O is distributed between 18 control panels interconnected with Ethernet/IP networks. The control system communicates over Ethernet to the various equipment vendor-supplied systems.

A separate Emergency Stop system monitors for Master, USP Purified Water, CIP, Spray Dryer and Tank Farm safety stop conditions and shuts equipment down via hard-wired interlock circuits.

The SCADA servers are a set of virtual machines hosted on redundant physical servers. The virtual machines consist of:

• A Directory server
• Redundant HMI servers
• Redundant Data servers
• A Terminal server
• An Engineering Workstation server
• A Historian server
• An Engineering Development server
• An Asset Management server
• A View Only server

The operator interface consists of nine fixed thin client workstations located throughout the process and utility areas, two dual thin client fixed workstations located in the control room, and two large monitor thin client displays located in the control room.

The following software packages were used as part of the control system:

• SCADA – Rockwell Automation Software FactoryTalk View Site Edition
• Historian – Rockwell Automation Software FactoryTalk Historian
• Asset Management – Rockwell Automation Software FactoryTalk AssetCentre
• Reporting and Trending – Rockwell Automation Software FactoryTalk VantagePoint
• Alarm Notification – Exele Information Systems TopView
• Thin Client Management – Rockwell Automation Software ThinManager
• Alarm/Event Storage – SQL Server
• Diagnostic Log Storage – SQL Server
• CIP Recipe Storage – SQL Server

The Results: Teamwork Makes the Control-System-Integration Dream Work!

The project manager reflects on the talented group of 12 automation engineers who have worked on the project:

“From a personal standpoint, the team I’m working with here at [E Tech Group] is one of the most talented groups of people that I’ve ever worked with in my career.  It’s been extremely rewarding being able to work with this group, and everyone is doing an amazing job.  We’ve got a really good combination of very experienced engineers, and we also have some new engineers who are really enthusiastic, eager to learn and apply themselves, and who are also extremely intelligent.  It’s been a great experience.”

Thanks to the skill and drive of our team, Acorda Therapeutics now has a modernized, scalable, fully integrated automation platform that enhances controls, performs industrial data analytics, shores up facility safety, supports quality and consistency, and sets the stage for continued growth.