China's First 5G Smart Refinery Plant Launched in Shaanxi

China's first 5G-based smart refinery plant was launched at China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC)'s branch in Changqing, in Northwest China's Shaanxi province, a starting point of the country's "5G + smart application" plan in the petrochemical industry.

The refinery plant is equipped with a high-speed, wide broadband, low latency and highly reliable 5G cloud network infrastructure based on a dedicated 5G industrial network and mobile edge computing platform.

Taking advantage of 5G, digital twins and visual identity technologies, a smart assistant inspection route system has been formed. Inspectors can use the three-dimensional digital platform to view high-resolution images of the sites, search for data with abnormal parameters and trigger real-time alarms, which improves the control and management of production.

CNPC's Changqing subsidiary is a national pilot and model enterprise of smart manufacturing and has a complex application scenario typical of the refinery field. 

It started cooperation with the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, China Telecom Corporation Limited Shaanxi company and Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. on the 5G and industrial internet innovative fusion development project in 2020.

(Executive editor: Niu Yilin)