Eco Voice Q & A: Gerardo Muñoz, Senior Solutions Marketing Manager, Aspen Technology, Inc.

Gerardo Muñoz, Senior Solutions Marketing Manager, Aspen Technology, Inc.

Background

Gerardo Muñoz is marketing manager for sustainability solutions across the AspenTech portfolio. He develops the positioning of AspenTech solutions on key sustainability areas, such as hydrogen, CCS, bio-based feedstocks and plastics circularity. He is part of the core group leading the sustainability go-to-market strategy for the company and is responsible for aligning the messaging across stakeholders.

Gerardo has worked at AspenTech since 2010, during which time he was responsible for providing technical guidance and global training on AspenTech products. In 2020, he transferred from AspenTech’s Mexico City office, where he also provided sales support to the company’s oil and gas customers in Latin America, to the company’s Bedford, MA headquarters in the U.S. Prior to joining AspenTech, Gerardo was an alternative fuels analyst. He researched biodiesel and microalgae as alternative sources of energy and designed equipment for carbon capture projects in the cement industry.

Gerardo holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Tec de Monterrey in Mexico, and a master’s degree in sustainable chemical engineering from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden.

To provide insights into how Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is key in the move towards a net-zero world, Tim Langdon, publisher of Eco Voice, had the pleasure of facilitating a Q & A with Gerardo Muñoz, Senior Solutions Marketing Manager, Aspen Technology, Inc.

Q1. What is AspenTech focused on in terms of sustainability?

AspenTech’s software enables companies to develop new processes that can be scaled to support the energy transition and a net-zero future. For example, green hydrogen, biofuels, carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS), as well as the circularity of plastics. The company also helps customers solve operational challenges, which includes maintaining maximum efficiency in process operations; managing electrical grids amidst growth in
renewable energy sources; ensuring supply chain resiliency; reducing carbon emissions and more.

In general, the industry is facing the dual challenge – that of mitigating increasing demand for resources (driven by increasing standards of living and growing population), while pursuing aggressive sustainability goals. Advanced digitalization solutions form a key lever towards achieving the world’s goals in balancing equitable access to resources and climate responsibility. Advanced technology – crucial to the energy transition, exists today. When applied to hard-to-abate industries, such innovation can make a significant impact on climate change. Innovative technologies to mitigate and adapt are mission-critical in this equitable transition to net-zero.

Q2. What is Carbon Capture and Storage (CSS)?

CCS offers a viable role in meeting net zero targets. The IEA represents a commonly held viewpoint that it will almost certainly play a key role in greenhouse gases (GHG) emission reduction, and global energy transition.

Carbon capture comes in two approaches. First, point-source carbon capture removes CO 2 through chemical treatment processes, from power generation and industrial flue gases, while direct air (DAC) capture is a way to remove existing emissions by moving large quantities of air through removal systems. In both approaches, considerable energy (usually renewables) is required to achieve the carbon capture outcome. Hence, digital technology solutions are mission-critical in optimizing and improving the economics. With either approach, carbon must be indefinitely and safely geologically secured via carbon capture and storage (CCS); or converted to valuable products via carbon capture and utilization (CCU).

Q3.  Why is Carbon Capture and Storage so important to a net-zero ambition?

Carbon capture at the point source is necessary to achieve industrial commitments, while the world transitions and develops the infrastructure to carbon-free energy sources. However, direct air capture (DAC) technology is emerging as a long-term solution to remove the current elevated level of CO 2 that has accumulated in the atmosphere. DAC helps companies deal with emissions that are hard to abate from industries like steel, cement, air transport, and agriculture, which due to their dependence on high heat (steel smelting) or need for concentrated fuel (air transport) lag in decarbonization. To make a significant impact to net zero, advanced innovation is needed to reduce the cost and energy footprint of carbon capture at scale. Together with geologic storage, carbon capture can provide a solution for safe and long-term containment of CO 2 over time.

Q4.  AspenTech is involved in many industries. Which industry that you are involved in is making the greatest strides towards a move towards a net zero world?

Moving to a net zero world requires asset-intensive industries to look into a combination of strategies. Energy efficiency and emissions management are the pathways that companies in sectors including chemicals, mining and energy have been addressing today. However, to reach net zero, it is necessary to innovate and develop new solutions. As an example, hard-to-abate industries like cement and steel are developing solutions to reduce the use of carbon-based feedstocks or the emissions that come with them.

Significant breakthroughs and development of innovative technologies and solutions have been made lately to realize pathways like carbon capture, low-carbon hydrogen, materials circularity, and renewable power at a global scale. And pairing these innovations with the advancements in the power industry that provide a more efficient renewable energy is enabling lower carbon footprint and improved economics to quickly realize these solutions. In recent years, there have been a worldwide surge of projects, with nearly 1,500 just for hydrogen alone.

Q5.  How can AspenTech get more industry players involved in reducing their emissions?

Digital solutions exist today to make a significant impact on climate change in hard to abate industries. Using sophisticated process optimization technologies across all these industries increased levels of resource and energy efficiency can be achieved to reduce demand and minimize their emissions.

Innovation in both mitigation and adaptation technologies are going to be critical in the equitable transition to net zero. AspenTech has a demonstrated track record of partnering with our customers and key partners to deliver solutions that are moving the needle for the industry. Process modeling and optimization technologies are already being used heavily in carbon capture to reduce risks and optimize the design and operation of the carbon capture systems.

For example, Technology Center Mongstad (TCM), one of the largest testing and innovation centers for carbon capture, has built an integrated data collection and modeling platform, based on AspenTech’s advanced modeling solutions, to understand key details of how the capture system is performing at the solvent level. A virtual digital twin training application like this is crucial, given the scale and speed of carbon capture systems envisioned in the world economy to reduce emissions.

Q6. How can publications, such as Eco Voice, play their part in promoting sustainability?

Eco Voice plays a key role in driving awareness of the problem and the solutions, and in bringing people together to collaborate and develop partnerships to quickly realize solutions to achieve our sustainability and decarbonization targets.

Partnerships are critical to our ability to accelerate our collective path to global net zero. It will be critical to partner across industry boundaries to co-innovate and develop the best outcomes for the new world. Partnerships will also be needed to ensure diversity is leveraged to bring new innovations to market and deliver the best outcomes for people and the planet.

ABOUT ECO VOICE

First published in 2003, Eco Voice is your go-to publication for sustainability news in Australia. Eco Voice prides itself as an independent news platform with a clear focus on sustainability, with articles coming from a diverse range of contributors – all levels of government, corporations, not-for-profits, community groups, small to medium sized businesses, universities, research organisations, together with input from international sources. Eco Voice values community, conservation and commerce. Eco Voice is a media partner of the prestigious Australian Banksia Sustainability Awards – The Peak Sustainability Awards.

ABOUT ASPEN TECHNOLOGY, Inc. 

Aspen Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: AZPN) is a global software leader helping industries at the forefront of the world’s dual challenge meet the increasing demand for resources from a rapidly growing population in a profitable and sustainable manner. AspenTech solutions address complex environments where it is critical to optimize the asset design, operation and maintenance lifecycle. Through our unique combination of deep domain expertise and innovation, customers in capital-intensive industries can run their assets safer, greener, longer and faster to improve their operational excellence. To learn more, visit AspenTech.com.

Category: Climate Change, Environment News, Miscellaneous, Sustainability