A typical chemical plant uses PROFIBUS DP as backbone (DCS level 2) plus PROFIBUS PA segments for the transmitters located in Ex ia / ib zones (lower process layers), an architecture which will remain dominant against PROFINET-APL for another 5-10 years in process industry.
True
The typical chemical architecture stacks: a DCS (Honeywell, Emerson, ABB 800xA) at the top, a PROFIBUS DP backbone at the cell level, DP/PA Couplers, then PROFIBUS PA segments in the explosive zones (Ex ia) feeding pressure, temperature, level and analytical transmitters. Plant lifetimes of 20-30 years drive a slow migration pace. Ethernet-APL (10BASE-T1L) is emerging but the migration cost is massive, so PROFIBUS will still lead worldwide process industry deployments in 2026.
When sizing a migration roadmap for a chemical plant, plan in decades: the PA segments in Ex zones are the slowest to migrate and dictate the overall pace.
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