Case Study: Tronox achieves improved uptime and reduced obsolescence with Honeywell Experion control system upgrade

TRONOX Cooljarloo Control System Upgrade

Tronox, the largest integrated titanium minerals producer in Australia, needed a control system upgrade at its Cooljarloo operations to address obsolescence in an Experion R201 installed base while minimizing impact on ongoing mining and concentrator operations. Honeywell was engaged to modernize the North Mine Concentrator (NMC) and Feed Preparation control systems, validate back‑translated logic during final acceptance testing, and provide detailed test documentation to support a tight project schedule.

Honeywell delivered a Greenfield migration—clean installations of R410 Experion clusters (with NMC virtualization), migration of the Feed Preparation IPC620 PLC to a C200E controller, and replacement of ControlNet with a Fault Tolerant Ethernet Bridge—carried out in partnership with Tronox engineers. The Honeywell solution removed unsupported hardware, improved operability and plant uptime, enabled a major control‑strategy cleanup, reduced capital and support costs by maximizing Tronox involvement, and established the execution model for the future South Mine upgrade.

Tronox