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To ensure the necessary high plant flexibility, a process control system was not used. Instead, the decision was taken in favour of a new extensive automation concept based on a safety-related control system to monitor, control and regulate all the safe and non-safe automation circuits as well as a higher-level SCADA system to operate and observe these regulation and control circuits.

In the production units concerned, a total of 15,000 process variables must be checked or controlled for process monitoring and automation purposes. All control and regulation tasks are implemented in the maximum available HIMA safety controller H51q.
 
In the safety controller, which is approved to SIL3 without restrictions, not only all the production programs, but also all the recipes are permanently loaded. Furthermore, the common raw material supply is automated with a H51q.

The success of the HIMA safety system and "SCADA system" project planning at Degussa has shown that, even in larger-scale projects with up to 15,000 process variables, it is possible to achieve an automation potential, which is in many aspects equal to that of a standard process control system.

The automation concept has fully met the expectations with regard to "safer" production processes, increasing the system availability and cost optimisation.