As we stand on the brink of a new era, the role of digital technology in reducing emissions and promoting sustainable energy practices has never been more crucial. This is particularly true for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, where organizations are striving to meet ambitious emissions targets.
Digital technology in emission reduction
Already, many companies — including many in the GCC region — are employing near-term digital technologies, like AI-enabled emission management solutions, to not only pinpoint areas that produce the most emissions but also to determine the best and most cost-effective solutions to remediate them. Other existing technologies, like process optimization and energy efficiency measures, are also widely used to help slow emissions while also maintaining profitability.
Those near-term technologies allow companies to quickly reap some sustainability benefits while also working to develop and deploy future technologies — like carbon capture, hydrogen and biofuels — which will be critical to creating a lot- or no-carbon future.
Digital grid solutions, meanwhile, will not only help decarbonize the electrical grid but also enable operators to make critical decisions related to renewable generation, distributed energy sources and energy storage in real time. By allowing companies to balance the grid, emissions related to power generation can be minimized or eliminated.
The expanding role of digital technology
For years, digital technologies have driven sustainability efforts across asset-intensive companies — though not necessarily by that name. Companies have employed modeling and simulation tools, production planning systems, advanced process controls, energy efficiency measures, dynamic optimization, predictive maintenance and more to increase efficiency and profitability.
In recent years, as sustainability became its own imperative, many of those same technologies are now deployed to deliver sustainability benefits. Today, digital technologies enable operators to quickly evaluate the economic and environmental impact of different processes, allowing for better, more informed decision-making in real time.
New sustainability applications — like hydrogen generation, carbon capture and storage (CCS) and biofuels — will continue to develop in the coming years. As this take place, digital technologies will play a key role in scaling those innovations up and driving wider adoption by helping de-risk these newer technologies and effectively predict their return on investment.
Read more: The intersection of technology and sustainability
Emerging digital solutions for sustainability
A new generation of innovations, enabled by digital technology, is also emerging to offer new solutions for everything — from clean energy generation to emissions mitigation. Startup companies are working to develop technology that would use CO2 captured from the atmosphere to produce fuels and polymers to replace petroleum-based plastics. Other companies are developing methods to create emissions-free cement, while others are working to store CO2 by mineralizing it to form solid rock. All of these innovative approaches will depend on digital technology as they enter the market in the coming years and scale to impact global sustainability.
The GCC is uniquely positioned to leverage these technologies as it is advantageously located in areas of high-quality renewables — solar, wind and geothermal — and has a vibrant research environment. GCC countries have the skills needed to quickly scale up technologies in these spaces, having honed these skills in more traditional energy spaces. As such, the GCC can and should lead the charge in making the energy transition real by leveraging digital technologies to scale these innovations.
Challenges in the energy transition
The most obvious road to sustainability is replacing traditional energy sources with alternate renewable sources. But this road to a sustainable future brings challenges. It’s unrealistic to expect a sudden end to conventional fuels. As the energy transition progresses, the oil and gas industry will be critical to ensuring reliable energy supplies in the near term while laying the foundation for a low- or no-carbon future.
No single industry or company can address the climate issue on its own. New ways of doing business — from evolving business models to new partnership strategies — must also be part of the picture.
For some companies, those changes are already underway. ARAMCO, for example, has taken a unique approach to developing carbon capture technology. The company worked with researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology to develop a system to identify and implement promising carbon capture approaches, then licensed the system as part of a modeling and optimization solution.
Along with new business models, companies must develop corporate cultures dedicated to achieving organizational excellence. Investing in talent, training programs, and building best practices will be key to ensuring companies can attract and keep the next generation of workers while dealing with the challenges of the energy transition. The reskilling of workers using new energy techniques will be critical in transitioning the workforce to the new reality of energy.
Driving the energy transition
As the world navigates the energy transition in the years to come, we will face significant challenges. Digital technologies will be critical to helping forge a path to a sustainable future.
Software incorporating the most advanced engineering knowledge on the planet will enable thousands of companies across asset-intensive industries to design, operate, and maintain their operations. Coupled with advanced digital technologies like Industrial AI, these products ensure the delivery of cutting-edge solutions that continue to optimize productivity, reduce energy usage and emissions, and minimize waste and are also enabling major sustainability advances, from the production of biofuels to integrating renewable energy into the electrical grid.
There is no single solution for sustainability, so each company’s pathway will depend on its particular capabilities and strengths. As technology providers work side-by-side with their customers and the governments across the GCC to deliver sustainability progress amid a changing market — they will not only deliver value but also upskill the workforce in the region with the digital capability needed to navigate the energy industries of today and tomorrow.
The decades to come will be critical to the world’s sustainable future, and it is critical that we act now to make it a reality.
About Rasha Hasaneen
Rasha Hasaneen joined AspenTech in 2023 as Chief Product and Sustainability Officer with responsibility for the strategy and execution of all product-related activities including product marketing. She leads enterprise-wide sustainability efforts and collaborates across all business units to develop and execute on key initiatives.
Rasha most recently served as Vice President of Innovation and Product Management Excellence at Trane Technologies and the Executive Director of the Center for Healthy and Efficient Spaces. Through various leadership roles, Rasha has transformed the customer experience for companies including Ingersoll Rand, General Electric, SAP, Hitachi, Lucent Technologies and General Motors. Rasha is a seasoned executive with a broad background in product management, product marketing, sustainability, engineering, strategy, planning and lean thinking.
Rasha has an interdisciplinary PhD in Sustainability spanning the chemical engineering, business and public policy disciplines from Texas A&M University, a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management from Stanford University, and a Bachelor of Engineering and Management in Mechanical Engineering from McMaster University. She is also a registered Professional Engineer.
Rasha Hasaneen is chief product and sustainability officer at AspenTech.
For more op-eds, click here.
