Book Review: Process Integration Approaches to Planning Carbon Management Networks

Dominic Foo and Raymond Tan ISBN: 9781032242811; CRC Press; 2021; £59.99

IN THE Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change (https://bit.ly/3w9QaS5), it states: “Based on central estimates only, cumulative net CO2 emissions between 2010–2019 compare to about four fifths of the size of the remaining carbon budget from 2020 onwards for a 50% probability of limiting global warming to 1.5°C, and about one third of the remaining carbon budget for a 67% probability to limit global warming to 2°C.”

This means that the industrial world’s carbon budget (the amount of CO2 that it can release into the atmosphere for a 1.5°C increase in global temperatures) is equivalent to only another 7–10 years at the average rate of emissions of the last decade. Carbon budgeting is now critical at a national, regional, and industry scale, as well as for every household. So, recognising the need to account for every release of CO2 into the atmosphere, it’s clear that Process Integration Approaches to Planning Carbon Management Networks, by Dominic Foo and Raymond Tan, is very timely to say the least.

Process integration harks back to pinch analysis, developed by Bodo Linnhoff for determining the heating and cooling requirements of industry based on only preliminary design information. The process integration method begins by determining the minimum amount of heating and cooling required, known as targeting. The second stage is a design methodology which matches the target, followed by optimisation. Since Linnhoff’s method was developed, the field of process integration has been expanding. One area using the original concept of pinch analysis is carbon emissions pinch analysis, or CEPA, based on the idea that there will be a demand for energy or chemicals that will require the emission of CO2 and there will also be a variety of sources of chemicals or energy each having a different CO2 emissions profile. CEPA provides a methodology for matching the demand with the sources which minimise CO2 emissions overall.

The book is divided into two parts. The first provides an explanation of the CEPA methodology, so as to be able to understand fully the case studies provided in the second part. It first provides a brief, but essential introduction to pinch analysis and then two chapters on targeting carbon emissions including carbon capture and storage (CCS). Several examples based on regional energy requirements are used, which are easy to follow. Two chapters are provided on automated methods of analysis, which detail the mathematical equations required to solve the problem algebraically and/or numerically, and these are very much for research students and optimisation practitioners. They include descriptions of the optimisation software code that are readable. Access to support material, including the computer codes themselves, are available from the publisher’s website.

A great strength of the book is the case studies provided in the second part by various invited authors from China, Taiwan, Malaysia, India, UAE and the Philippines. This wide range of cases provides a snapshot of the carbon reduction regional planning activities in the fastest growing areas of the world, not to mention valuable data for future research.

Fortunately for the future prospects of humanity, the area of carbon reduction is fast-changing and the increasing penetration of renewables into the electricity grid is now leading to energy surpluses for some brief periods in some parts of the world. This places emphasis on energy storage. Though this is not a part of the CEPA methodology, the book’s failure to mention energy storage is my main criticism, given its importance in utilising surplus renewable energy which will further drive the reduction in carbon emissions.

Achieving carbon neutrality is going to be very challenging and this book provides an approach and insights that are an important contribution to meeting this challenge. I’d recommend it to chemical engineers with an interest in sustainability, and strongly recommend it to anyone responsible for planning for CO2 reductions across an organisation or government.