Sustainability Workflow Planning for Hydrocarbon Operations
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Solution Overview
Problem
Hydrocarbon enterprises face challenges in tracking and improving sustainability parameters across upstream, midstream, and downstream operations, including energy consumption, carbon emissions, waste, and water usage, while striving for net zero carbon emissions and enhanced environmental impact.
Innovation Solution
A sustainability platform system that collects data from various sources, analyzes sustainability parameters, and generates action plans to optimize operations, incorporating real-time feedback and modular computational processing to improve sustainability efficiencies.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If traditional manual tracking methods are used for sustainability parameters, then implementation simplicity is maintained, but tracking accuracy and timeliness deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual mechanical tracking methods with an automated computer-based system that collects, processes, and analyzes sustainability parameters automatically. This substitution enables precise real-time tracking of multiple parameters across enterprise operations without requiring manual intervention, thereby improving measurement precision while the system manages complexity through automation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an engineering workflow system as an intermediary between raw sustainability data and decision-making processes. This intermediary system processes data, generates action plans, and provides recommendations, thereby improving tracking accuracy and timeliness while managing system complexity through structured intermediate processing layers.
2Loss of information
If comprehensive sustainability tracking is implemented across all enterprise operations, then sustainability parameter visibility is improved, but system complexity and data processing requirements worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the enterprise operations into distinct operational units (upstream, midstream, downstream) and tracks sustainability parameters for each segment separately. This segmentation allows comprehensive visibility across all operations while managing data processing complexity by organizing data into manageable segments that can be processed independently and then aggregated.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a universal sustainability tracking system that handles multiple parameter types (energy, carbon, waste, water) across diverse operational contexts through a single integrated platform. This universal system improves visibility across all operations while reducing overall complexity by providing consistent processing rules and interfaces rather than separate systems for each parameter or operation type.
3Loss of time
If real-time sustainability monitoring is implemented, then response time for sustainability improvements is reduced, but energy consumption and computational resources worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements periodic monitoring and analysis cycles for sustainability parameters, where data is collected continuously but processed at optimized intervals. This periodic action approach maintains real-time visibility and rapid response capability while reducing computational energy consumption by avoiding continuous full-scale processing, instead performing analyses at strategically determined intervals based on parameter importance and change rates.
Data Source
AI summary
A method may include receiving a sustainability model indicative of expected sustainability parameters associated with implementing action plans that correspond to enterprise operations of an enterprise over a period of time, such that the enterprise operations correspond to production data performed in a hydrocarbon production system, facility data corresponding to buildings associated with the enterprise, or both. The method may also include receiving an indication to optimize one sustainability parameter and identifying an engineering workflow system that improves a first sustainability parameter associated with the one sustainability parameter. The method may involve sending the sustainability model to the engineering workflow system and receiving an action plan to improve the sustainability parameter, such that commands may be sent to devices based on the action plan to cause the one or more devices to adjust one or more respective operations.