Hydrocarbon Processing - March 2022 - 78

Carbon/CO2
Mitigation
of the energy transition will be companies
that can navigate this journey profitably.
The capability to successfully create,
update and execute on a tenable net-zero
roadmap should, as a minimum, comprise
three key components (FIG. 1) that are discussed
separately in greater detail below:
* Carbon-aware planning:
The capability to create investment
and operating plans considering
Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.
* Process digital twin-based
energy and emissions
management: The capability
to calculate emissions reduction
potential to drive tactical,
operational improvements.
* Unified production and emissions
accounting: The capability to
baseline and then track production,
fuel and loss, ensuring more
consistent reporting between
emissions and production and
linking emissions reduction to the
bottom line through reduced fuel
and loss (or increased production).
Companies with these capabilities will
have a competitive advantage when balancing
between profitability drivers and
the new GHG- and sustainability-related
drivers to find a profitable path to net-zero.
These capabilities are not entirely new, but
should be considered as enhancements of
existing capabilities and solutions to address
the upcoming challenges and create
a sustainable competitive advantage as the
industry transitions to net-zero.
Carbon-aware planning. This is an enhancement
of existing planning models
and solutions to address future carbon
pricing and carbon caps or limits. It provides
organizations the capability to make
Carbon aware planning
Economic investments and operating plans
considering scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions
Process digital twin based energy
and emissions management
Calculate energy and emission reduction potential
Unified production
and emissions accounting
Align production and emissions accounting
to baseline and track results into your
sustainability reporting
-10%
-30%
-50%
-80%
-100%
Current baseline
2030
FIG. 1. Capabilities to successfully navigate to net-zero. Source: AVEVA.
78 MARCH 2022 | HydrocarbonProcessing.com
2040
Net zero
investment plans based on various carbon
pricing and carbon cap scenarios.
The capability consists of having a
planning solution that models direct
emissions for the organization with appropriate
rigor, including capturing the
carbon intensity from feed to the final
product and ensuring that all economically
significant operations or activities
and their associated emissions are modeled
to be dependent on the level of operations
or activity. This covers what are
typically classified as Scope 1 emissions.
Additionally, the capability should exist
to model indirect emissions (Scope 2
and 3), typically based on supplier/customer
published numbers, national or
regional averages, or industry numbers.
This would allow firms to assess the risk
of rising carbon pricing and the impact
of carbon caps from an overall (Scope
1, 2 and 3) carbon footprint basis. This
is key when evaluating alternate feedstocks,
energy sources and, in general,
any make vs. buy decisions.
The modeling approach must be supported
by collaboration with specialized
teams from the process, sustainability and
commercial/marketing segments. The
uncertainty in technology, regulatory and
market environments means that various
scenarios of demand, prices and new
technologies/processes must be evaluated.
This information will be collected
from specialists, and then different demand/pricing
scenarios must be applied
against a backdrop of varying policy environments
and technology options.
Process digital twin-based energy
and emissions management3
. Carbon-aware
planning provides the major
investment guidance and planning insight
Current emissions
into switching to low-emissions or green
feed, energy options and producing lowcarbon
products. However, companies
must also identify tactical opportunities
for emissions reduction that might not
significantly alter the process or require a
significant CAPEX investment.
These improvement opportunities
include performing maintenance work
like exchanger cleaning, changing pump
impellers, switching to low-carbon fuels
in specific equipment, equipment level
heat recovery, conservation and other
abatement initiatives. Improvement opportunities
will typically lower emissions
or increase efficiency in the medium- to
short-term, but are too granular or shortterm
to be adequately addressed by carbon-aware
planning.
Companies have been using site-based
norms or global/industry benchmarks to
compare their energy and emissions performance
and identify opportunities for
improvement. The problem with using
these norms is that they are too aggregated
and averaged to provide addressable
insights that can help prioritize actions.
For example, industry benchmarks are
effective at the unit or site level, but have
limitations when it comes to prioritizing
the potential for efficiency improvement
or emissions reduction in the context of
specific equipment (pump, motor, exchanger,
etc.), considering the nature of
site-specific operations.
Suppose that site-based norms for particular
equipment or class of equipment
based on history are used. In that case,
they can provide a comparison based
on historical averaged data but not the
potential benefit, which can help managers
prioritize actions. This is a challenge
because feed sometimes can be heavy or
light; it can contain high or low sulfur
amounts. Similarly, the process may run
alternately in a severe mode and a less severe
mode. This operational context will
impact the energy needed and the GHG
emissions from the process.
Averaging the data removes this context-for
that reason, the difference from
an averaged static norm does not capture
the true potential for reduction. Instead,
if a digital twin for the process is used and
run in parallel in a " green mode, " it will
calculate the most practically efficient
norms for energy and emissions. The difference
between the current value and
dynamic target calculated by the " green "
Kg CO2 /MT crude
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