Automation at the Heart of Sustainability and the Energy Transition

• Plants must meet their net-zero carbon goals
• This requires transition of fuel and power, emissions reduction, carbon capture, energy storage, performance monitoring, process optimization, and central fleet management
• To do all this at scale requires specialized automation
• The result is greater sustainability of plants

Production companies have made commitments to reduce their Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions and carbon footprint, scope 1, 2, and 3. Their Environmental, Social, and corporate Governance (ESG) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) frameworks now take the implications of climate change into consideration. So now production plants must become more sustainable and transition to new energy sources, for new plants being built, as well as retrofitting of existing plants to achieve net-zero carbon. The energy transition is also a new business opportunity as whole new economies and industries are formed and whole new infrastructure with plants for new sources of energy, new fuels, and batteries are being built. The energy transition has a long timescale, so it is important that both new plants but also the vast infrastructure of existing plants using fossil fuels are made more efficient short-term. The most interesting fact is that regardless of what your future energy mix will be, automation is required to provide it. The automation solutions required to do this at scale are available. What are the recommendations? Here are my personal thoughts:

Regardless of what your future energy mix will be, automation is required to provide it

Automation to Scale

Automation plays a critical role in sustainability and the energy transition. Improving energy efficiency and reducing emissions in existing plants requires automation. Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) at scale requires automation. Vast infrastructure for producing, transporting, storing, injecting, and dispensing hydrogen and generating power and heat from hydrogen requires specialized automation. Infrastructure for lithium mining and refining, as well as battery material production at scale, in support of electrification, requires automation. Infrastructure for biofuels production like biodiesel, green diesel, and biomethane at scale requires automation. This automation goes beyond traditional core process control (CPC) for production. The recommendation is to add new automation for monitoring and optimization (M+O) is also required. Equipment must be fully instrumented. People must be given software tools.

This essay doesn’t cover every automation component required in plants in the hydrogen and lithium battery value chains, or for biofuels or CCUS. The focus is only the critical automation components that have special requirements or which the consultants may overlook. Additional general-purpose automation is also required.

Energy Source Decarbonization Solutions

The energy transition, the transformation of the world's power system, involves multiple new sources of energy and energy carrying fuels. Manually operating plants for production, transportation, storage, and conversion to heat and power at scale would be impractical. It requires automation.

Hydrogen and Hydrogen-Based Fuels Solutions

Producing hydrogen and hydrogen-based energy carrier fuels like ammonia and methanol require new infrastructure with many plants to be built and existing plants to be retrofitted. Manually operating these plants to produce, transport, store, dispense, and use hydrogen at scale would be impractical. It requires automation. Hydrogen is a challenging element due to the very high pressures and very low temperatures needed to transport hydrogen in a compact state, flammability, and small molecule capable of penetrating metals, so automation solutions specialized for hydrogen are required over and above general-purpose automation. Here are a few recommendations:

• Electrolyzer Automation: Process technologies like proton exchange membrane (PEM) suffer membrane failure. Continuous gas analyzers are used to help.
• Steam Methane Reformer (SMR) Automation: A well understood process.
• Pipeline Hydrogen Injection Station Automation: Hydrogen will be injected into the natural gas pipeline grid. Gold-plated pressure transmitters, gas chromatographs, and regulators with special materials are used to help.
• Hydrogen Refueling Station (HRS) Automation: Filling stations and fuel dispensers for hydrogen vehicles must handle the high pressure of hydrogen. High-pressure high-accuracy Coriolis flow meters are used to help.
• Fuel Cell Automation: Process technologies like solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) must handle the high pressure of hydrogen. In vehicles, dual-stage pressure regulators are used to help.
• Hydrogen Safety: Hydrogen is a challenge since it is highly flammable. Continuous gas analyzer, methane sensor, and ultrasonic gas leak detector are used to help.

Emissions Management Solutions

Manually uncovering and pinpointing emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) like methane and carbon dioxide (CO2) through leaks, flaring, and venting across plants would be impractical. It requires automation. Manually operating units for carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) at scale would be impractical. It too requires automation.

Emissions Monitoring and Control Solutions

Detecting, locating, reporting, and repairing leaks, internal passing, and flaring across the plant would be impractical. It requires automation. Here are a few recommendations:

• Emissions Monitoring: Venting and flare reduction as well as detecting greenhouse gas (GHG) fugitive emissions from leaking flanges, valves, and pumps etc. manually across the plant would be impractical. Advanced sensors and analytics for PRV, methane sensors, and ultrasonic gas leak detector are used to help.
• Emissions Control: Manually inspecting hundreds or thousands of process equipment for inadvertent emissions across the plant would be impractical. Pipeline valve actuators and regulators until now exhaust or bleed methane to atmosphere. Thief hatch and relief vent monitoring, and pilot operated PRV are used to help. Zero exhaust pipeline valve actuators and regulators are also used to help.

That is, you can get a head start on sustainability using only automation software and hardware, before you transition the energy sources, without redesigning the process, before adding a carbon capture process.

Get a head start on sustainability using only automation

Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) Solutions

Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) to become carbon-neutral requires new infrastructure with many plants to be built and existing plants to be retrofitted. These plants need automation to capture, compress, transport, store, and sequester or utilize the carbon at scale. There are several carbon capture process technologies, each one with its challenges, so automation solutions specialized for CCUS are required over and above general-purpose automation. Here are a few recommendations:

• Amine treatment carbon capture: The amine treatment process technology is corrosive, its concentration is important, there is outgassing, etc. Density meter, corrosion sensor and analytics, dirty service valve trims, and pilot operated PRV are used to help.
• Vacuum Swing Adsorption (VSA) and Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) carbon capture: The Vacuum Swing Adsorption (VSA) and Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) process technologies has high cycling and high purity is required. High-cycle control valve, contactless valve positioner, valve analytics, and continuous gas analyzer are used to help.
• CO2 compression: Compressor must be protected. Compressor anti-surge valve with optimized digital valve controller and compressor instability detection in a sensor are used to help.
• Pipeline CO2 transportation: CO2 pipelines run long distances and may corrode. Continuous gas analyzer and pipeline leak detection system are used to help.
• CO2 loading and offloading: The supercritical phase of CO2 is hard to measure accurately. Coriolis flow meter with advanced phase measurement is used to help.
• Buffer storage: Plants producing or using CO2 store it locally in a tank farm. Radar level gauge with custody transfer certified accuracy, 2-in-1 sensing design, and proof testing, along with inventory management software with SIS overfill prevention and central proof testing functionality are used to help.

Electrification Solutions

Manually operating plants for production of in-vehicle batteries at scale would be impractical. It requires automation. Manually operating plants for an energy storage facility on a scale of hundreds of GWh would be impractical. It requires automation.

Energy Storage Solutions

The transition from fossil fuels to electric motors with energy stored in lithium batteries requires a supply chain with many new plants to be built for the battery manufacturing and recycling at scale. Starting from extracting lithium, through production of battery chemicals, to the assembly of battery cells. The lithium extraction process depends on if the source is brine or the mineral rock spodumene. Vast number of plants are also needed for lithium battery recycling at scale. Manually operating these plants would be impractical. It requires automation. Here are a few recommendations:

• Spodumene Concentrator Plant Automation: Manually operating the process units in spodumene concentrator plant to process lithium at scale would be impractical. Mineral processing is a harsh environment. Transfer chute monitoring system based on vibration sensors and expert software, Model Predictive Control (MPC) software. hydrocyclone classification system based on vibration sensors and expert software, and knife gate valve with full port and replaceable liner are used to help.
• Lithium Refinery Automation: A spodumene concentrate refinery needs automation to process lithium at scale. Mineral processing is a harsh environment. Control valve with ceramic trim on eccentric plug is used to help.

The other way to store electric power is to convert it to hydrogen, store the hydrogen until power is needed, and then convert hydrogen back to power. That is, to use electric power to produce hydrogen in electrolyzers, and use hydrogen to produce electricity using fuel cells or combined cycle gas turbines. Automation for these process units is explained in the hydrogen section.

Energy Efficiency and Optimization Solutions

With hundreds or thousands of pieces of equipment in a plant, manually uncovering inefficiencies and overconsumption is not practical. Energy Conservation Measures (ECM) reducing energy intensity requires automation. Manually adjusting multiple interacting control loops to balance energy consumption with other goals like yield and throughput etc. is not practical. It requires automation.

Advanced Controls and Analytics Solutions for Energy Efficiency

Manually uncovering and reporting inefficiencies, overconsumption, and losses in a plant with hundreds or thousands of pieces of equipment in a plant is not practical. It requires automation. Manually balancing several interacting variables for dozens or hundreds of control loops to optimize energy consumption is not practical. It requires automation. Here are a few recommendations:

• Analytics for Energy Efficiency: Failed steam traps, fouled heat exchangers, cooling towers, and air-cooled heat exchangers, and excessive lighting cause losses and overconsumption. Advanced sensors and analytics software based on first principles (1P) thermodynamics are key enablers for improving efficiency and for loss control for the processes, utilities, and infrastructure like lighting. As well as submetering for utility flows is used to help.
• Advanced Control for Energy Efficiency: Plants have lots of unit processes like heating, chilling, crushing, grinding, pumping, compression, conveying, and electrolysis which all consume a lot of energy. Manually adjusting multiple interacting control loops to balance energy consumption with other goals like yield and throughput etc. is not practical. Model Predictive Control (MPC) software which run fast in the DCS controller and with redundancy is used to help.

Again, you can meet part of your sustainability goals using only automation software and hardware, before you transition the energy sources, without redesigning the process, before adding a carbon capture process.

You can meet part of your sustainability goals using only automation

Simulation and Remote Monitoring Solutions

Moving personnel from offshore to onshore or from a remote site to a central office in an urban area by making remote sites autonomous reduces travel to site. Unmanned operation for months through Remote Autonomous Operation means automation must take the place of manual tasks such as inspection and data collection. Here are a few recommendations:

• Remote Monitoring for Unmanned Operation: Just remoting the production management for unmanned sites is not sufficient. Reliability, maintenance, integrity, and sustainability must also be managed centrally for a remote site to be autonomous and to do away with scheduled site visits. Visits shall be by exception only. This reduces scope 3 emissions due to transportation and dramatically reduces the cost of supporting personnel offshore or at remote sites. To eliminate the need for periodic visits for inspection and data collection, remote sites need autonomous data collection to predict or detect problems early. Engineers have a knack for working out which points need to be fitted with sensors, and which type. Wireless sensors for acoustic noise, corrosion, erosion, level, gas concentration, temperature, pressure, vibration, discrete, and flow as well as analytics software are used to help.

Action Plan: Sustainability and Energy Transition by Automation

As with every energy transition as well as industrial revolution in the past, automation has played a critical role. So to in this energy transition and fourth industrial revolution (4IR); Industrie 4.0. Industry 4.0, digital transformation, and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is all about industrial automation. Regardless of your energy source you will need automation. Automation vendors have these software and hardware components. Here’s an action plan for which you can allocate a person responsible, date of completion, budget, and other resources:

For existing plants implement:

• Emissions management automation
• Advanced controls and analytics for energy efficiency
• Centralized fleet management for remote sites

For new projects design-in:

• Specialized automation for hydrogen
• Specialized automation for CCUS
• Specialized automation for lithium
• As well as above automation recommended for existing plants, but do it right from the start

Lead the way. Schedule a meeting with your sustainability and instrument & control (I&C) engineers today.

Share this essay with your sustainability manager now

And remember, always ask vendor for product data sheet to make sure the software is proven, and pay close attention to software screen captures in it to see if it does what is promised without expensive customization. Well, that’s my personal opinion. If you are interested in digital transformation in the process industries click “Follow” by my photo to not miss future updates. Click “Like” if you found this useful to you and to make sure you keep receiving updates in your feed and “Share” it with others if you think it would be useful to them. Save the link in case you need to refer in the future.