Enabled better management of greenhouse gas emissions for a hydrometallurgical facility

In some countries, where carbon taxation is now in effect, accurately reporting on greenhouse gas emissions data has become crucial for compliance. However, for this hydrometallurgical facility in Africa, reporting was complex and laborious – until they discovered Metallurgical Intelligence®.

Challenges

Being able to precisely monitor greenhouse gas emission data can be difficult for any organisation. For this hydrometallurgical facility, where emissions simply weren’t being measured or calculated correctly, it was especially challenging. Even though the facility did have some understanding of its carbon emissions, their measurement and reporting process did not accommodate granular data, and simply included yearly/monthly figures. Needing more accuracy and detail in their emissions reporting, this facility turned to Metallurgical Systems for help.

Solution

We worked closely with this facility to firstly commission a plant historian and then implement MI Core® – bringing together disparate data in order to make reporting far simpler and more streamlined, by creating a digital twin model. This model calculates unmonitored streams and performance statistics at an hourly basis, including carbon emissions and power consumption. Through the combined power of the centralised source of plant information and the digital twin, we can now calculate greenhouse gas emissions for this facility, in accordance with the emissions categories outlined by the GHG Protocol.

Results

By analysing plant information, building and deploying a digital twin, and analysing emissions from streams at a granular level, we were able to help this facility analyse and report on direct and indirect emissions. We now track direct process carbon emissions and plant electricity consumption on a daily basis. This includes consumption of fuels such as coal and diesel, as well as calculated emissions based on plant instrumentation and process chemistry.