Everyone within the chemical industry agrees: they need to get started on the energy transition and carbon reduction! We are therefore seeing inspiring examples of innovative projects in the field of decarbonization. The success factor? The right approach to project management.

The Climate Agreement is clear: by 2030 we must have 49% less CO2 emissions compared to the base year of 1990, and 95% less CO2 emissions by 2050. To achieve this, we at KH Engineering have been working on the energy transition and decarbonization in particular for quite some time in different industries. Our projects include CO2 capture or heat transfer from industry to district heating. In addition, our design has enabled the retrieval of raw materials and energy from existing processes at various asset owners.

On the road to decarbonization: these are the stumbling blocks
If the chemical process industry embraces a different way of producing, it can have a gigantic positive impact on the world. In our new white paper, we describe a number of inspiring cases in the field of decarbonization. This transformation of an entire industry is obviously not happening without its growing pains....

In practice, we see that organizations encounter a number of stumbling blocks on their way to reducing CO2 emissions:

  1. Availability and knowledge of new technologies in the field of decarbonization are lacking. This is because it involves specific and relatively new applications such as electrification of processes that were previously natural gas-fired or electrolysis for the production of hydrogen, methanol and waste plastic liquefaction.
  2. Because of its strict focus on manageability, the industry is inherently conservative. Organizations are reluctant to incorporate new technology into existing processes. As a result, there is a tendency to adopt a wait-and-see attitude.
  3. Organizations within the chemical industry are intimately enchained in large supply chains. To bring decarbonization projects to a successful conclusion, it is necessary for the most diverse organizations - large and small, startup and corporate, and so on - to work together optimally. Corporate cultures may well clash.

The connecting factor of project management
To guide organizations past these obstacles to a safe final destination, an experienced project manager is needed. He or she not only has substantive knowledge of innovative techniques, but also knows how the new technique can be fitted into the existing processes. The right project manager is also the link between all those involved.

That's quite a list of requirements - and yet many organizations have had to downsize in recent years. That's why they often choose an external expert who can devote himself completely to the task at hand. After all, decarbonization is too important to leave to chance.

Would you like to know more about the success factors of an innovative decarbonization project? Download the white paper 'Industrial decarbonization: this is the secret of successful projects' here. By subscribing, you will always be the first to receive the latest whitepapers trends & developments in the field of energy transition.

Enthusiastic about the energy transition? Please contact Kees Vonk via kees.vonk@khe.eu 06 54 972 747