Gerardo Munoz, Senior Solutions Marketing Manager, Aspen Technology, Inc. spoke exclusively to Pravin Prashant, Executive Editor, Indian Chemical News on industry trends, size of sustainability and CCS/CCUS market, solutions offering, and strategies for achieving a net-zero world. Excerpts of the interview:  

Top five industry trends related to sustainability?

Emerging from the pandemic and the following challenges, the chemical industry is undergoing a monumental shift to reposition itself for success in the next decades. Energy efficiency, carbon neutrality (Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions), digitalization, circularity & green chemistry are top five sustainability trends in chemical manufacturing.

With the start of war in Europe, there is greater importance for chemical manufacturers to have access to energy and feedstocks. Improving energy efficiency in process and utilities has become a top sustainability initiative. The goal includes curbing Scope 1 emissions, as well as keeping the operation economically viable. 

To reduce Scope 2 emissions, companies look for low-carbon electricity supply, green power purchase agreements (PPAs), and renewable energy certificates.

To reduce indirect Scope 3 emissions, chemical companies are evaluating value chains and adopting circular economy principles. This can include sourcing raw materials more sustainably (bio-based or generated waste), optimizing logistics to reduce fuel consumption, and improving the efficiency of production processes. Digitalization and digital tools can uniquely position chemical companies for long-term success in reducing emissions and achieving both circular and economic goals. Finally, green chemistry and the value of less toxic/non-toxic chemicals and the environmental and health benefits associated with this change has been discussed for decades.

Size of sustainability solutions market? What are the solution types offered under sustainability?

Global pledges call to make an urgent transition from fossil fuels to clean and affordable energy sources by reducing emissions, tripling renewables, and doubling energy efficiencies. To meet global climate goals, the world must speed up the pace of development of innovative decarbonization and waste reduction technologies to advance to net-zero, and rapidly scale those solutions, addressing the needs of a growing population while ensuring business continuity and sustained performance.

This presents a big opportunity globally. IEA estimates that in 2023 more than US $1.7 trillion was invested in clean energy, including renewable power, nuclear, grids, storage, low-emission fuels, efficiency improvements, and end-use renewables & electrification. Investments in sustainability also expand to capital projects. As an example, the total value of today’s capital project backlog of announced CCS and CDR projects is over US $129 billion (IEC and HP databases).

Sustainability solutions offered by AspenTech for chemical and petrochemical verticals? Where does AspenTech’s solution stand vis-à-vis competitors?

AspenTech has been the leading digital solutions provider for the chemical industry for over 40 years. We have decades of experience in optimizing chemical processes to help our clients save energy and lower emissions. The capability to measure GHG emissions has been embedded in Aspen Plus for years now. We provide tools and technical expertise in all areas of sustainability from processing biofeed stocks to incorporating renewable energy sources in micro-grid management. To help our users with modeling sustainability processes, we have created a library with over 150 sustainability models accessible to all our users. The models range from carbon capture to waste plastic pyrolysis, Li-ion battery recycling, water electrolysis to make green hydrogen, and many others. We constantly update and upgrade our offerings to make certain we address the industry's needs.

What is the size of the CCS/CCUS solutions market globally and in India? What is the size for chemical and petrochemical companies both globally and in India?

According to the Global CCUS Institute (Global Status Report, 2024), in 2022, the Indian government announced the establishment of two National Centres of Excellence in Carbon Capture and Utilization to focus on research and development. These centres act as centers for collaboration and other initiatives related to carbon capture and utilization.

The same report noted that in Asia Pacific, CO2 transport and storage facilities under development (17) make up the largest category of facilities in the region, followed by natural gas processing and chemical manufacturing – 15 and 10 facilities respectively.

A total of 12 facilities are operational (of which, five facilities have commenced operations in China between 2022 and 2023), eight under construction, and 34 under advanced or early development.

While India is still in the early stages of CCUS deployment, compared to other countries in the region and globally, there is large potential for these technologies, as India emitted 2.9 billion tons of CO2 in 2022, representing 7.6% of the world's total emissions.

The CO2 capture capacity of all CCS facilities under development increased 48% between 2022 and 2023 with about 200 new facilities added to the development pipeline. However, these numbers are still short of reaching the targets.

Discuss top five industry trends related to CCS/CCUS globally?

The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is gaining traction globally to enable CCUS at a wider scale to improve productivity, create competitive advantage and support product innovation, among other applications. Industrial AI is an approach where industrial and scientific domain expertise provides the guardrails around AI to ensure the accuracy and safety of the results of AI applications.  

Applying Industrial AI in carbon capture processes can provide agility in screening thousands of innovation options – allowing companies to quickly evaluate thousands of (possible) solvents and project designs. In identifying the most efficient, economical, and scalable processes, such tools are helping to develop more efficient carbon capture. For example, AspenTech and Aramco are using generative AI and machine learning (ML) approaches to speed up material discovery for CO2 capture and low-carbon pathways.

In operations, digital modeling and simulation tools, combined with edge instrumentation, using the hybrid modeling approach, which combines AI with first principles, provides digital twins that provide feedback to improve economics, performance and reliability.

How many CCS/CCUS facilities are operating globally to date, and how many are under development? How many facilities are using AspenTech’s solutions, and how have they benefited? 

According to The Global CCS Institute 2024 report, there are over 41 projects in operation and 351 in development globally, with new projects being announced weekly. This represents a 100% increase in projects under operation or development from 2022 – 2023.

As a leader in industrial software, AspenTech provides a comprehensive, holistic approach to asset optimization across design, operations and maintenance. Multiple carbon capture facilities have been designed using AspenTech software by EPCs (Engineering Procurement & Construction). However, details of this cannot be provided.

It is worth noting that Technology Centre Mongstad, the largest carbon capture demonstration facility in the world, uses AspenTech Performance Engineering solutions to support optimization of carbon capture technologies. Commercially available technologies today were also developed using AspenTech process simulation tools over a decade ago, including Shell’s Cansolv and Fluor’s Econamine solvents. Direct Air Capture (DAC) companies like Carbon Engineering and Carbon Capture, Inc. have relied on AspenTech to improve economics of the technologies and support commercial scale development.

What are the CCS/CCUS solutions offered by AspenTech to chemical and petrochemical companies? What is the unique selling proposition (USP)?

Throughout the CCUS value chain and across the asset lifecycle, AspenTech combines the power of AI with our domain expertise to support the development of scalable carbon capture and carbon storage solutions, prioritize investment decisions, improve efficiencies and have visibility across all stages of the value chain.

Integrated digitalization strategies with AspenTech solutions help chemical and petrochemical companies ensure long-term business resilience throughout the CCS value chain across these areas:

* Techno-Economics: Process simulation helps to further optimize processes, identifying the right tradeoffs between capture efficiency and energy use.

* Investment Certainty: Dynamic, event-driven modeling guides investment and operational decisions to maximize profits across the lifecycle while identifying uncertainties and bottlenecks to mitigate financial risks.

* Project Scale-up and Execution: Model-based cost estimation provides insights to rapidly define scale, size and economic feasibility. AspenTech’s concurrent engineering workflows accelerate project development by improving collaboration between stakeholders.

* Carbon Capture Operations: Advanced process control technologies improve process stability and reduce energy use in key unit operations. Design models can be used to train operators and improve operational decisions.

Challenges faced in the implementation of CCS/CCUS deployment and how are you planning to minimize it?

AspenTech does not focus on implementation and deployment of CCS/CCUS technologies. However, AspenTech solutions help engineering companies to rapidly scale-up, size, and cost digitally. 

How is CCS/CCUS positioned for a strategic role towards the net-zero world?

CCUS, particularly in hard-to-abate sectors, is featured in the Paris Agreement’s first Global Stocktake outcome from COP28 as part of a list of zero and low emission technologies to act on and accelerate. Carbon capture with underground geologic storage is one of the solutions that will enable the energy transition, while carbon removal is needed to decarbonize hard to abate sectors and remove historical emissions to get to net-zero.

To make a significant impact to net-zero, advanced innovation is needed to reduce the cost and energy footprint of carbon capture at scale. Together with geologic storage, carbon capture can provide a solution for safe and long-term containment of CO2 over time.