Jay Gadhavi, Sales Director of KROHNE Oil and Gas BV talks to DecarbonisationNews about the efforts that could be taken by companies to decarbonise industrialisation.
KROHNE metering systems, for example, are used throughout the entire energy value chain, from production of oil, gas, green and blue hydrogen, through ship (un)loading and pipeline transport, to industrial consumers and underground storage locations. These systems for CO2 are based on many years of experience with measuring CO2 in food & beverage and chemical industry.
What are the solutions you think would be ideal to decarbonise industrilaisation?
As a member of the IRENA-founded Alliance for Industry Decarbonisation, this is a crucial topic for KROHNE and something we hope to tackle in more detail with our industry peers at COP28. What we need are genuine, transparent standards and regulations in place that can be accurately measured, benchmarked and improved drastically upon.
KROHNE is well-placed to make a measurable impact to our customers’ operational efficiency and we can play a role in these areas of industrial processing:
Decarbonisation, the process of reducing carbon emissions to combat climate change, is a pressing global challenge. Industrial measurement solutions play a pivotal role in this endeavor by providing accurate data and insights necessary for optimising energy usage, minimizing emissions, and improving overall sustainability. Several ideal industrial measurement solutions for decarbonisation include:
Emissions Monitoring Systems: Continuous monitoring of greenhouse gas emissions from industrial processes is essential. Advanced sensors and analyzers can measure carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and other pollutants to help industries track and reduce their carbon footprint.
We have seen the Marine industry as a first-mover here due to EU regulation and we have a world-leading solution called EcoMATE. The EU’s energy efficiency directive known as “Fit For 55” was legislation likely to impact a lot of our shipping customers based on their carbon emissions, so we developed EcoMATE to help them get ahead by measuring emissions and fuel usage and avoid hefty fines. EcoMATE is MRV (monitoring, reporting and verification) compliant and verified according to the EU regulation 2015/757 making us one of the leaders in this space and increasingly trusted by our marine partners and customers. Standards-based measurement is crucial to our business model across industries as we push everyone towards increased efficiency.
Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS): Measurement systems are vital for monitoring the effectiveness of CCS technologies, which capture and store CO2 emissions from industrial processes.
KROHNE metering systems are used throughout the entire energy value chain, from production of oil, gas, green and blue hydrogen, through ship (un)loading and pipeline transport, to industrial consumers and underground storage locations. These metering systems for CO2 are based on many years of experience with measuring CO2 in food & beverage and chemical industry.
With instrumentation and custody transfer metering systems designed from the same source, customers can rely on seamless integration of all components.
How can oil and gas and other energy companies benefit from KROHNE solutions?
If you don’t measure you can’t improve.
Our role in a just transition towards sustainable industries is our leadership in the measurement space – the issue today many companies face is a lack of international standards for sustainable benchmarking and we can help provide clarity and transparency. We provide expert consultancy and insight to put the best foot forward.
Apart from the above critical and next-gen solutions I referred to, the R&D function inside KROHNE continues to push the boundaries and we are always looking for innovation partners to develop new technologies for the energy transition.
As a family-owned company we can operate in ways that other corporations may find difficult – we don’t need to answer to shareholder quarterly dividend demands and can take action differently that will often benefit we hope our people, planet and even profits over a longer timeframe. We offer our customers and partners a longterm, reliable working relationship and technology to match.
We Create Shared Value (CSV) as a fundamental operation strategy. Where sustainable initiatives are primarily concerned with reputation and have only a limited connection to the business, making them difficult to justify and sustain in the long run, CSV, on the other hand, is critical to a company’s profitability and competitive position. It makes use of the company’s particular resources and experience to generate economic benefit while also providing social value.
In addition to our Shared Value strategy, KROHNE’s inbuilt qualities are those of German engineering excellence but also more recently of a global sustainability leadership, something we hope to continue exporting around our global operations on our path to achieve net zero by 2045, hopefully sooner.
Where does our field stand in decarbonisation?
Essentially we are in technology and manufacturing and we see our role as ultimately helping customers to reduce their own impact through our solutions, across all industries – while we are well-known in the Middle East for our energy projects, our technology is also in the Dubai Solar Park, at the backend of water infrastructure systems across the region and increasingly in nuclear, chemical, food and beverage processing environments too.
Since joining IRENA’s Alliance for Industry Decarbonisation earlier this year and the launch of our 2030 Net Zero Strategy, KROHNE whilst at the beginning of their decarbonisation journey is increasingly aware of the challenge ahead. At the same time as guiding customers towards more precise measurement solutions, we are also making strides to our own operations.
Short term objectives (2025)
– Reduction of CO2 emissions generated from vehicle fleet and air travel from 8 tonne/M€ in
2019 to 3 tonne/M€ in 2025
– Reduction of CO2 emissions by reducing energy consumption and making a transition to
Green Electricity from 14.1 tonne/M€ in 2019 to 9 tonne/M€ in 2025
– Newly developed basic design products according to KROHNE Eco-Design guideline from
0% in 2019 to 90% in 2025
– Establish Product Environment Profile (PEP) per instrument type from 0% in 2019 to 50% in
2025
– Install solar panels on at least 30% of our factory rooftop surface
– Green packaging from 10% to 80%
– Introduce, increase and promote plant-based food options in the work cafeteria.
Near-term objectives (2030)
– Reduce scope 1 and 2 GHD emissions intensity by 60% (target = 7.3 tonnes of CO2e/M€)
– Increase annual sourcing of renewable electricity from 10% to 70%
– Reduce energy consumption in manufacturing processes by 20%
– Reduce energy use of sold products (scope 3) by 20% (target = 52 tonnes of CO2e/M€)
– Increase the percentage of turnover generated by KROHNE instruments and solutions sold to
industries contributing to avoiding CO2 emissions (Power generation, Marine, Nuclear, Water)
from 18% to 30%
– Product Environment Profile (PEP) available for 95% of instruments
Long-term objectives
– Commit to reducing scope 1 and 2 emissions intensity by 95% in 2040 (0.9 tonnes of CO2e/M€)
– Net-zero committed by 2045
In order to help our partners and customers achieve their own carbon reduction goals, we are assessing our existing technology and product offering – we are providing PEPs (Product Environmental Profiles) for a growing number of our products, providing our customers with clear and concise information on the carbon impact they take on by buying and using our equipment
Our global R&D team is mandated to develop new technologies using KROHNE’s own Eco-design Golden Rules (see below) in the design process, which have a direct impact on our own product and wider supply chain
- Ensure that newly designed products have a more positive environmental impact than the previous generations.
- Promote LONG LIFE, especially for products with most significant environmental aspects out of usage phase.
- Promote REPAIR and UPGRADING, by enforcing MODULARITY DESIGN and providing clear instructions manuals to our clients.
- Ban or reduce TOXIC substances in accordance with regulations (ROHS, REACH…).
- Minimise WEIGHT by reducing instrument sizes and using high quality materials which do not impact functional properties.
- Minimise the overall ENERGY consumption especially during the usage phase by reducing pressure drop and/or current consumption of instruments.
- Use as FEW JOINING ELEMENTS as possible to facilitate recycling.
- Promote RECYCLING by using fewer, simple, non-blended materials and no or few alloys.
- Prefer quality materials and surface treatments to PROTECT products from corrosion and wear.
- Select recyclable PACKAGING materials and minimize their weight to reduce consumption in TRANSPORT
Our focus here on facilitating Reduce, Reuse and Recycling is key so that when products leave our factories they empower our customers to do better for the environment and we contribute to a beneficial domino effect.
While we can’t speak for the competition in a very complex and varied field as ours, we simultaneously hope to make a significant impact with the above actions but also hope, for the sake of the planet, we are among the slowest to evolve.
What are the key challenges to decarbonisation within industrialisation?
I repeat: If you don’t measure you can’t improve.
How can we stop global development with a growing population and such disparate and disconnected communities at varying levels of wealth and education in the world? We recently signed up to join the UAE chapter of the United Nations Global Compact, in an effort to drive achievement of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, with many related to wellbeing, education, equality as much as environmental concerns. My point is that industrialisation should continue but we need to do it right and in the most efficient and least harmful way possible. Until everyone agrees on what that looks like we will remain hamstrung and continue to follow the same path.
Collaboration on regulation will set the path for everyone so we can all continue to develop in the best way for the future of our planet and our children’s children.
