Hydrocarbon Processing - January 2022 - 25

Special Focus Sustainability
C. HARCLERODE, OSIsoft, Houston, Texas
Shrinking the carbon footprint: A digital
transformation roadmap for green fuel producers
From ethanol and renewable diesel to biofuels and gas-toliquids,
the world is moving toward low-carbon energy sources
to mitigate climate change and boost energy security. These
new sources of energy have their own challenges; the key to
meeting those challenges lies in the ability to optimize processes
and systems.
However, before any organization can optimize processes
and systems, it first must recognize that data is a critical asset
and, as such, requires proper management. Many green fuel
companies already have existing or planned ecosystems of
control and data systems across their operations based on tags.
These tags contain sensor data such as temperature, flows and
vibration. However, all this data is meaningless if it is not contextualized.
In fact, a wealth and diversity of tags, without structure
or context, becomes a roadblock to discovering valuable
insights. A high quantity of data is only as useful as its quality
allows. All the promises of big data and the digital transformation
will remain out of reach if data is not structured and contextualized,
which is not an easy task in traditional information
technology (IT) data lakes.
Because consistency in calculations and operations data
transformation is key to generating actionable intelligence from
data, the most progressive companies are adopting operations
data infrastructures that normalize disparate data sources and
enable subject matter experts (SMEs) to add context and lower-level
analytics. This generates maximum efficiencies and
profitability in a competitive environment where subsidies and
incentives will not always be available.
How operational intelligence drives optimization. An
operational data infrastructure gives site operations SMEs the
ability to configure performance dashboards, which SMEs can
then use to make proactive, better informed decisions to keep
plants running smoothly. Smarter decision-making means improved
efficiency, reduced operations costs, reduced maintenances
costs and fewer lost opportunities.
Digitally optimizing work processes also grants engineers access
to previously inaccessible data, with exceptional accuracy
and little-to-no delay. Even at a very basic level of implementation,
digital transformation projects reduce operators' rounds,
increases situational awareness and allows operators to prevent
and respond to abnormal operations and events. In turn, these
improvements promote safety, operational performance and reduce
carbon and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Custom dashboards provide end users better visibility into
operations, which allows them to both improve their business relationships
and increase their return from the digital value chain.
Carbon accounting: A new currency. Green fuels may be
the solution to minimizing carbon emissions, but they also
pose new challenges. By the old energy paradigm, the oil and
gas industry focused single-mindedly on achieving the lowest
production cost. Today, that focus is complicated by a second,
competing priority to achieve the smallest carbon footprint.
The goal is not just to minimize GHGs at one refinery but
across the entire supply chain. One of the biggest opportunities
that an operational data infrastructure affords is the creation of
a digital value chain-the ability to securely share operations
data with key stakeholders across the supply chain to optimize
efficiency and minimize carbon footprint.
For example, some green fuel companies are now sharing
their operations data with catalyst providers, which run nearreal-time
modeling of production processes to identify possible
improvements. In other cases, green hydrogen producers
purchase electricity needed in the refining process from green
vendors, such as wind and solar farms. These types of collaborations,
which contribute significantly to overall net-zero goals,
are only made possible by the accessibility and shareability of
critical carbon accounting data.
In the same way that companies exchange dollars and euros,
green fuel producers are now exchanging carbon credits
as part of their daily operations. This ability is an increasingly
important factor in risk management and investment decisionmaking.
Exchanging carbon credits requires transparency, consistency
and verifiability. As blockchain and similar technologies
evolve, operations data infrastructures are becoming more
essential in calculating those carbon credit values in such a way
that they can be bought, sold and traded. An operations data
infrastructure also produces insights that can help optimize
enterprise-wide financial reporting.
Digital pitfalls to avoid. Some companies simply send all their
data to data lakes, typically hosted by cloud vendors. By this imperfect
strategy, the resulting data lacks context and consistency.
Simultaneously, the volume, velocity and variability of data output
in an era of increasingly smart devices can quickly become
overwhelming. Just one data source-such as a wind turbine or a
piece of refinery equipment-can generate tens of thousands of
data points every few seconds. When concerns about cybersecurity
and governance are added to the equation, it becomes clear
Hydrocarbon Processing | JANUARY 2022 25
Hydrocarbon Processing - January 2022

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