Events

As participants at the OPTIMIZE 24 conference in Houston, TX, we were able to gain some valuable insights on innovative solutions and best practices to achieve worldwide sustainability goals. Process Ecology has been a long-time partner with Aspentech, collaborating on many projects over the years. This conference presented a great opportunity to re-connect with Aspentech colleagues and meet with new collaborators.

Event: OPTIMIZE 24

Theme: Partnering for the Future

Date: April 29th to May 3rd, 2024.

Location: Houston, TX, USA

Hosts: Aspentech, in collaboration with industry partners and stakeholders

Key Highlights

The acquisition of 55% of Aspentech by Emerson was stated to be a success and has added two new business areas, in addition to engineering, supply chain management, and Asset Performance Management (APM); One was DGM (digital grid management system) and the other was subsurface simulation.

DGM is a large business (from Emerson) which is essentially the “OSI” or “Monarch” software. It was mentioned that India’s entire grid is using this software. For reservoir modeling; e.g., “SeisEarth” this system can predict suitable rock formations for H2/CO2 storage with AI and 3D visualization.

Other Partners that attended included Spartan Controls and InProcess. Aspentech's biggest partners include Microsoft, Accenture, ARC Advisory Group, CGI and EY.

There was a focus on AI and machine learning - AI driven hybrid models, generative AI, etc.

A general theme that came about these discussions was that companies now work in ecosystems and that there is no expectation that one company delivers everything. Companies should rely on partners to deliver complete services to clients.

Day 1 of Conference

Keynote presentations were given by Antonio Pietri (CEO of Aspentech) as well as executives from Wood, ExxonMobil and Circular Logic.

Themes throughout the sessions:

• Drive operational excellence - this includes performance, profitability, sustainability
• Accelerate low-carbon solutions - support hydrogen, CCUS, etc.
• Ensure energy security and resilience - including "molecules and electrons" (hydrocarbon-based and electricity based energy)
• "Safer, Greener, Longer, Faster"

Spartan Controls gave a presentation on APC in a SAGD facility – APC (Advanced Process Control eg. providing setpoints to the regulatory controls which are the underlying system.

It was noted that nothing additional has been created in industry to "close the loop" since the advent of APC in the late 80s/early 90s.

Day 2 of Conference

Scott Tinker was a keynote speaker and he provided an overview of the challenges of sustainability, energy security, energy demand, etc.

Panel "Navigating Net Zero" with representatives from Dow, Aramco, Microsoft, Emerson, and SMUD.

Vikas Dhole gave an overview on Aspentech's sustainability strategy:

• Emissions Management: Their key success has been with refineries in Europe which can effectively model the vast majority of emissions for a refinery (mostly combustion-based) in Aspentech's tools, and are regulated by cap and trade - and there is a significant cost for CO2. Therefore, a continuous application which summarizes the actual vs. benchmark CO2E for every part of the refinery allows them to react quickly to problems.
• CCUS: There are various solutions here - partly a thermodynamic issue (CO2 absorption, high pressure modeling), as well as reservoir (i.e., this is one of the 5 key areas for Aspentech now, with their reservoir modeling capabilities).
• Hydrogen: This includes integrating renewables with hydrogen production, storage, transportation, etc.
• Biofuels: This is supported by feedstock modeling in HYSYS.
• Plastics circularity - i.e., using recycled polymer using a range of mechanical and chemical technologies.

Conclusion

Overall, the conference was very well attended and provided us with valuable information about how new technologies are being applied to industries that are focusing on sustainable practices. As mentioned, creating partnerships with other industry experts that have the same sustainability goals is essential to making a difference.

This report summarizes our participation and key takeaways from the OPTIMIZE 24 conference, emphasizing Process Ecology's commitment to sustainable practices and innovative solutions in collaboration with Aspentech and other industry leaders.