Because governments at COP26 failed to achieve the types of accords that climate campaigners and many members of the global public have been seeking, industry has been tacitly awarded a leading role, according to Ron Beck article for sustainabilitymag.com. It seems that energy corporations are taking their responsibilities seriously. The Sustainability Future for Energy and Chemicals report by ARC Advisory Group found that 90% of global energy and chemical corporations had sustainability programs.
According to a recent AspenTech poll of over 300 global organizations, 78% of executives feel successful carbon reduction may help their company gain a competitive edge.
But which technologies are most suited to assist energy businesses in accomplishing their sustainability goals, Beck, Senior Director for Industry Marketing at AspenTech, asks.
Geographically, renewable energy sources like wind, solar, and geothermal power have varying possibilities. Aside from that, other industrial processes, including air and sea transport, are difficult to decarbonize. As well as a huge future need for metal processing, notably rare earths, which have an unknown lifespan carbon effect and a concentrated supply chain.
Here comes hydrogen, which may provide a large portion of the world’s energy needs while being carbon-free.
Despite its undeniable promise, hydrogen poses various problems, including storage, transportation, cost of electrolysis production, renewable power sources and availability, cost and efficiency of carbon capture (in the case of blue hydrogen), and end-use safety.
With so many capital projects aimed at delivering large-scale hydrogen production and storage, the hydrogen economy has great momentum despite these limitations. As a substantial zero-carbon alternative, numerous areas are looking into a hydrogen economy.
A key component of the hydrogen economy, digital technology will accelerate and de-risk innovation, de-risk adoption, and improve scale-up and optimisation of the hydrogen value chain. To scale up this technology, the government and private sector will need to work together. To overcome various value chain constraints, maximize commercialization, design and supply networks, and enhance production and economics, we will need digital technologies.
Simply put, software technology will be critical in navigating the energy transition. In the hydrogen economy, digital technology will help reduce the cost of hydrogen, evaluate and optimize multiple value chain options, and remove barriers that prevent safe chain scaling.
Using cutting-edge methodologies for innovation and optioneering while reducing costs. This program may model hydrogen electrolysis, hydrogen reformer processes, various novel techniques for hydrogen synthesis, as well as hydrogen liquefaction and pipeline delivery.