Video summary
The video highlights the critical role of carbon impact assessment within process plants, driven by global concerns over climate change and industrial responsibility. Professor Yogendra Shastri explains that while annual global carbon emissions reach approximately 40 gigatons, the chemical industry contributes roughly 15 to 20% of this total through activities involving petrochemicals, fertilizers, cement, steel, and food production. With nations like India committing to net-zero targets by 2070, major companies are establishing their own reduction goals, ranging from 2035 for some oil firms to 2045 or later for others. Achieving these ambitious targets requires a fundamental shift in how industries measure and manage their environmental footprint, making carbon assessment an essential skill rather than just an optional study.
To effectively reduce emissions, the first step is accurately identifying where they originate within a chemical plant's operations. The primary sources of carbon dioxide are combustion processes used to generate heat for furnaces like direct-fired heaters or reactors, as well as steam generation which currently relies heavily on fossil fuels such as natural gas and coal. Additionally, electricity consumption contributes significantly to the footprint; in India alone, every kilowatt-hour consumed generates about one kilogram of CO2 equivalent depending on the power source used beyond the plant boundary. Beyond direct burning, chemical reactions themselves can produce carbon dioxide as a byproduct or product, such as during hydrogen production via steam methane reforming or fermentation processes, meaning that emissions exist even without active combustion events.
The assessment framework is structured around three scopes of emissions to provide a comprehensive view of environmental impact. Scope one covers all direct emissions occurring within the plant's physical boundary due to on-site fuel burning and other activities. Scope two accounts for indirect emissions resulting from purchasing electricity generated off-site, which applies to most smaller plants relying on the grid rather than captive power generation. While scope three involves complex supply chain issues like raw material procurement and catalyst manufacturing that are often too difficult for individual process engineers to calculate in detail, the focus remains firmly on mastering scopes one and two. By developing a detailed mass balance flow sheet simulation, students can gather all necessary data to perform these calculations accurately, ensuring they understand exactly where their carbon output comes from before attempting any reduction strategies.
Ultimately, the goal of this assessment is not just calculation but strategic improvement through technology adoption and process modification. Once engineers have quantified their footprint per unit of product produced using simple tools developed for such analyses, they can explore available technologies to lower emissions without necessarily redesigning entire processes immediately. This exercise prepares future professionals for industry demands by teaching them how companies think about sustainability and innovation today. As industries increasingly require personnel who understand these concepts deeply, mastering carbon impact assessment becomes a vital opportunity for students to gain practical skills that will make them competitive in the evolving landscape of green engineering and sustainable manufacturing.
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Professor yogendra shastri will talk
about um very important topics in fact
last year the industry experts said why
that study was not done that is the
thing to do nowadays by the way
Professor yogendra shastri uh has taught
this course many times and in fact it is
the schedule that he arrived at that we
are using we have further modified it
and Professor yandra shastri knows all
about about this
course so thanks a lot so uh I'll take
maybe five minutes just to uh uh tell
you what we are talking about so
uh so how many of you know what is our
Global carbon emission annual I know
some of you may might taken my elective
I'm sure I've said that number before so
if you have already heard from me maybe
stay quiet for a While others who have
not heard it from me do you know what is
the over carbon emission of globally how
how many kgs or tons we
emit any
guess you have to speak louder it's okay
I mean it's wrong it's fine no
problem how
many 1 million 2 million how
many 3 million 2 million 4 million okay
any
other so the annual Global is about 40
gatons okay 40 into 10 to9 that is our
annual carbon emission
globally now what do you think is our is
the contribution of chemical industry to
that how much percentage let's say
rough
estimate again just ballpark figure I'm
not looking for exact
number
20% any other
number so 20 is reasonable you know I uh
just before this lecture I was just
looking at the latest data it's about
you know if you combine
different uh sectors it comes to about
15 to 20% so you have 40 Gat tons which
you annually emit globally out of that
about 15 to 20% is because of chemical
industry which
includes petrochemicals fertilizer
cement industry steel speciality
chemical everything put together
including a little bit by food industry
also I'm including everything here so
it's a very large number and obviously
uh there's a lot of concern about CL
climate change and global warming as a
result there is lot of emphasis on
reducing the carbon emissions across
different
sectors uh and of course carbon sorry
chemical industry will have to
contribute uh India you know India has
given a net zero Target of 2070 if that
has to be achieved every sector has to
contribute including the chemical
industry sector and therefore every at
least the major chemical companies now
have come up with their own targets
uh I know some of the numbers for oil
companies uh typically so Reliance is
probably the earliest one I think
they're talking about 20 35 that's when
they will achieve Net
Zero some public sector oil and gas
companies are talking about 245 2050
that range and so
on
so if you now have to actually reduce
carbon emission the first thing is a is
to at least know what is your carbon
emission if you know if you don't know
what is your carbon emission and where
your carbon is emitted you cannot do
anything more you know that is the first
basic step that is
required so let me ask you another
question so that 20% that we talked
about 1/5 so let's say about 8 Gat tons
comes from car chemical industry what in
your opinion is the biggest contributor
where is that 8 gigons coming from which
activity in the chemical
industry boiler
okay what was
that furnace okay
similar air
flare okay
maybe so every time you burn something
no it is kind of obvious basic
combustion reaction every time you burn
something it will generate CO2 doesn't
matter what you are burning even if you
burn biofuel it is going to produce CO2
okay so every combustion reaction will
generate CO2 now in there in a chemical
industry there are several steps where
you need energy and therefore in a
chemical industry most of the carbon
emissions are because of the energy
requirement this energy could
be you are burning fuel in the furnace
for example a direct fired heater where
you are burning natural gas maybe crude
oil is getting heated before it goes to
the distillation column or there are
fired reactors where you have to achieve
very high temperatures and you have
almost like a furnace reactor that is
one source second you obviously need lot
of steam steam requirement is huge in
chemical industry and currently all the
steam almost all the steam that is
generated is using some kind of fossil
Source either natural gas fossil F sorry
fuel oil coal in some cases and so
on uh additionally electricity is
another important source of carbon
emissions it may not happen on your side
but if the electricity that that we are
using or the chemical industry is using
is produced by burning coal then as per
the carbon footprint calculation that is
also accounted for as your carbon
footprint okay uh roughly uh every
kilowatt hour every unit of electricity
that we use in India the carbon
footprint is about 1 kg of CO2
equivalent that is an average number it
will very depending on the exact Source
now why why am I telling you all of this
because as part of this design project
we want you to do some basic
calculations for carbon footprint
assessment so many of the so you have
already fairly well understood the
overall activity set of activities that
you will do as part of this project
which includes you know doing mass
balance flow sheet simulation and so on
so as you go through this process you'll
have a very good understanding of the
reactions the energy requirements and so
on so you will have all the information
that is available to you to to do this
kind of a
calculation so what we expect you to do
is once your flow flow sheet is
developed and you have confidence on
your mass
balance uh you should perform a first
cut calculation for carbon footprint and
we have already developed some simple
tools those who participated in the
course on Wheels uh activity would have
already used that tool or maybe they're
going to use this tool soon uh so
conceptually it is very straightforward
you know wherever you are burning
something CO2 is being generated
wherever using electricity some indirect
CO2 is emitted and so on there might be
some Reactions where CO2 is generated
okay that is also another possibility uh
for example when you produce hydrogen
using steam methane reforming CO2 is a
byproduct CO2 is a product when you have
fermentation CO2 is generated so there
there is no combustion it's actually a
byproduct so those could also be
situations so once you have good
understanding of your process say you'll
have all those
details so U what we want you to do is
to do a basic calculation of carbon
footprint uh you will have all the
information that is available to you uh
very briefly uh I can I'll tell you that
there are three different levels of
carbon footprint scope one scope two and
scope three so for those who are not
familiar scope one are direct emission
so if you have a chemical plant you have
some boundary of your chemical plant
any CO2 that is emitted on the site is
scope one so this includes combustion
any burning that happens and so on scope
two is emission because of electricity
that you take from
outside okay let's say you are not big
enough some plants will have captive
power plants so you they are generating
their own electricity but many smaller
scale plants may just get electricity
from the grid so the CO2 generated
during producing while producing that
electric scope two okay and scope three
is indirect emission related to
procurement of raw material the material
that is made the emissions during the
manufacturing of of let's say catalyst
and so on so we don't expect you to look
at scope three because it is fairly
complex not very straightforward but uh
what we think is scope one and scope two
calculations are straightforward
especially after you have had good
understanding of the process flow
sheet so uh uh that was sort of a brief
summary I I mean I sort of emphasized
why we need to do this what you are
expected to do uh subsequently during
the semester when you have some
requirement or if you have some
questions feel free to talk to me couple
of my one of my students is all that
also the TA for the course so she'll be
able to help you uh we will also be
available to help um so that is one
thing second you know Professor mzini
talked about you know that is the
minimum that you are expected to do but
but you we also encourage you to do more
and one thing you can probably try is
now if I have to reduce the carbon
emission you do the calculation you do
the carbon footprint calculation per kg
of let's say
uh uh whatever product that you are
producing this is your carbon footprint
if you have to reduce it what options do
I have is there any technology available
maybe there is an upcoming technology
that can reduce the carbon footprint so
we would like you to explore this
options to a certain extent you may not
do the calculations for the revised
process also but at least you should
know what what technologies are
available what modification I can make
in the process so that this carbon
footprint will go down so that will also
be a good learning exercise for you it
will be a good uh experience for you to
understand how companies will think now
very soon you know I we routinely
interact with Industries and they have a
large requirement for people who can
think along these lines know this
industry is going to pick up drastically
they will need people with basic
understanding of these Concepts so it's
a good opportunity for you to learn this
as part of a
course so yeah I think that's the brief
summary I wanted to give