The industrial gas industry derives its core products from the Earth’s atmosphere: oxygen, nitrogen, argon and carbon dioxide, and therefore is vitally concerned about the rising levels of anthropologic emissions.
Recent efforts extending the level of commitment to sustainable industrial development have discovered interesting opportunities to enable customers to improve their environmental performance.
Indirect emissions
The cryogenic air separation units operated by the industry that produce an estimated 80% of the total volume of atmospheric gases consumed worldwide, depend almost exclusively on electric power. Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from fossil-fuelled power generation plants are thought to represent around 50% of the industry’s total indirect GHG emissions.
Reduction of the specific power consumption of their ASU’s is the obvious way for gas companies to reduce their indirect carbon footprint, but this goal has always been vigorously pursued in the interest of improved profitability and the potential gains here are likely to be minimal. Typically, goals of around 1% annual improvement are announced in sustainability reports.
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