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Energy efficiency helps de-risk projects

23 October 2023

 

While digitalisation is being rapidly eclipsed by artificial intelligence in the technology domain, its importance in enabling the decarbonisation of hard-to-abate industries can only grow as governments across the region and globally aim to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 or 2060.

“Digitalisation significantly improves energy efficiency and allows industries to produce or access the greenest possible energy,” says Johan de Villiers, regional division president for India, Middle East and Africa at Switzerland-headquartered ABB.

The company’s energy management system, ABB Ability Optimax, is an example of a digital solution that helps to lower an industrial facility’s carbon emissions.

The software allows users to simulate the design and engineering phases of an industrial asset, such as a green hydrogen production plant, all the way to real-time visualisation and monitoring once the plant is in operation.

This system can yield significant energy and cost savings, says De Villiers.

The executive refers to a study by Green Hydrogen Catapult, which says that to scale up production capacity to the 50 times needed, the cost to produce green hydrogen needs to drop by 50 per cent, to less than $2 a kilogram by 2026.

A product such as Optimax can help ease challenges related to high green hydrogen production costs and energy-intensive processes, particularly in terms of electrolysis, which splits water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen.

The Optimax system, which ABB says requires an investment approximately equivalent to 1-3 per cent of an industrial plant’s technology investment, can result in up to a 20 per cent reduction in electricity-based costs.

“We see concrete monetary savings that can be had as industries implement their decarbonisation projects,” says De Villiers.

Plant automation

The executive notes that industries are having to increasingly automate the production and manufacturing process as part of an overall energy-efficiency drive.

“Automation itself is not the objective, rather it is about reaching the highest level of efficiency, which results in real return on investments,” he tells MEED.

As it is, the Middle East region offers significant opportunities for decarbonistaion tools and technologies that could increase the adoption of automated processes.

MEED understands a single offshore oil platform alone can produce up to 300,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year. This is inclusive of the energy required to operate the platform and to transport staff to and from the site.

The planned large-scale carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) projects across the region could also benefit from the use of energy management systems.

Ultimately, the deployment of energy-efficient technologies can help to de-risk these projects and make them more scalable and bankable, says De Villiers.

There are many energy transition routes, whether in established industries such as mining or in nascent sectors like green hydrogen production, adds De Villiers. He notes that there is increasing interest from countries in the Middle East and North Africa region in developing a low-carbon energy export industry.

“ABB’s digital solutions can help industries and businesses drive their energy transition strategies while at the same time ensuring that a sustainable business is a profitable one,” De Villiers concludes.

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Jennifer Aguinaldo

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