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Australian Energy Producers Journal Australian Energy Producers Journal Society
Journal of Australian Energy Producers
RESEARCH ARTICLE (Non peer reviewed)

Monitor and reduce emissions to meet compliance and sustainability goals

Nicolas Castelijns A *
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A Honeywell Limited (Australia), Perth, WA, Australia.




Nic Castelijns is a Solutions Consultant with Honeywell Connected Industrial. Nic has over 25 years of experience, working across a number of roles focussed on process control and OT systems. This has included implementing and consulting on projects throughout the Asia-Pacific region, with a specialisation in Advanced Process Control and simulation. Projects have spanned a wide variety of upstream and downstream hydrocarbon processing facilities. Nic holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Chemical) from the University of Adelaide and is based in Perth, Australia.


Australian Energy Producers Journal 64 S115-S118 https://doi.org/10.1071/EP23218
Accepted: 17 February 2024  Published: 16 May 2024

© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of Australian Energy Producers.

Abstract

In today’s climate-conscious world, companies across the globe continue to push to optimise energy use and reduce or eliminate their greenhouse gas emissions. Investments aimed at emission monitoring and reduction are driven by the need to optimise consumption of electricity, gas, oil, and water to meet emissions reduction targets and sustainability goals. Tracking and reducing emissions can improve process uptime through predictive maintenance and reduce product losses across the process. Methane emissions are in particular focus as methane is more than 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency stated that a third of methane emissions in North America come from the industrial sector, and similar figures come from the European Commission. It is no wonder that government and industry are laser-focussed on improving their approach to the reduction of methane emissions. As companies drive their own corporate standards to achieve net zero emissions, there is also a need to comply with existing and upcoming governmental emissions standards and regulations, and report emissions on a periodic basis. The trend to move fugitive emissions monitoring from periodic to continuous provides operators with a greater insight into emissions sources which drives efficiencies through the reduction of lost product and a more predictive approach to maintenance. Investors are increasingly focussed on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting and favouring companies that can demonstrate strong ESG performance. Fugitive emission leaks can translate into billions of dollars of lost productivity annually, and serious occupational accidents.

Keywords: compliance, emissions, ESG, Gas Cloud Imaging, methane, monitoring.

Biographies

EP23218_B1.gif

Nic Castelijns is a Solutions Consultant with Honeywell Connected Industrial. Nic has over 25 years of experience, working across a number of roles focussed on process control and OT systems. This has included implementing and consulting on projects throughout the Asia-Pacific region, with a specialisation in Advanced Process Control and simulation. Projects have spanned a wide variety of upstream and downstream hydrocarbon processing facilities. Nic holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Chemical) from the University of Adelaide and is based in Perth, Australia.

References

Australian Government (2022) NDC 2022 Update Letter to UNFCCC. Available at https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/NDC/2022-06/NDC%202022%20Update%20Letter%20to%20UNFCCC.pdf

Australian Government (2023) National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Regulations 2008. Available at https://legislation.gov.au/F2008L02230/latest/versions

IEA (2021) ‘Driving Down Methane Leaks from the Oil and Gas Industry.’ (International Energy Agency: Paris) Available at https://www.iea.org/reports/driving-down-methane-leaks-from-the-oil-and-gas-industry

OGMP (2021) More About Methane. Available at https://ogmpartnership.com/more-about-methane/

Zhu FX, Murugan NR, Murad S (2022) Embarking on an Industrial Net-Zero Journey. Chemical Engineering Progress, September 2022. pp. 41–47.