Transforming custody transfer: A green perspective from Danny Knoop, General Manager of ABB Eindhoven
For over 140 years, ABB has enabled energy efficiency and electrification in more than 100 countries. As technology leaders in custody transfer, ABB continues to pave the way for a more sustainable and resource-efficient future, enabling a low-carbon society and preserving our planet’s resources. Their sustainability goals are transparent — to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
We talked with Danny Knoop, the general manager of ABB Eindhoven, about the current state of the custody transfer industry.
Congratulations on the 11th Flow-Xperience conference! What are your impressions after the event?
Thanks Tijana! I’m proud to say that this year’s conference was a great success in many ways. Not only we managed to bring a lot of experts in our field together at one spot, we also had an amazing audience that travelled from all over the world to come to our event.
For us in metering and custody, there are not many centralized events such as Flow-Xperience conference. That’s why we created a three day program that addresses the current topics, latest developments, and changes in custody transfer which made the conference appealing to professionals in our industry. We are delighted to see many people returning to our event each year and discuss what we can expect in the years to come.
Let me just share a couple of examples with you.
In 2019 we talked about the upcoming need and the usage of the international cyber security standard IEC 62443, and now five years later we see this as a recurring topic for all our customers. Another example is developments in new energy sources where measurement is crucial. We have been addressing this topic since 2018, and it is remarkable that all our predictions are becoming reality today!
So, what is the current state of custody? How did the industry change over the last decade?
Like in many industries, we see numerous changes happening in custody transfer. Besides the rapid shift in energy streams over the world that we mention before, we also see the introduction of liquefied natural gas (LNG) on a large scale (transporting at -/- 165°C).
We are also witnessing important innovations in the new energy landscape. The integration of LNG, hydrogen, biogases, and carbon capture is driving a more sustainable and diversified approach in the custody industry.
The EU has developed a long-term initiative to achieve climate neutrality with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. How does this strategy affect custody transfer?
Achieving carbon neutrality is becoming a number one topic for every shareholder of big companies – whether they are energy suppliers or energy users. In my opinion, the biggest impact of those long-term initiatives reflect in the readiness of both sides to make big steps forward in greening the custody transfer.
If we look at ship bunkering (which represents users in custody), we see that many years ago, all large ships (including cruisers) used the lowest-quality oil for their engine fuel. The environmental impact of this was huge. Fast-forwarding to today, we see that ship owners want to buy high-quality fuel, which is enabling them to significantly reduce pollution.
On the other side, if we analyze oil and gas exploration company (who represent energy suppliers), we see that when these initiatives first started, the main focus was to reduce the energy consumptions during operations. With the introduction of company’s carbon footprint initiatives, activities have extended to include the explored product as well. Consequently, major players that aim to reduce their carbon footprint by 30% must either decrease their capacity/exploration or discover alternative ways to compensate for the carbon footprint of the explored product.
As an industry leader, ABB Eindhoven is continuously reshaping custody transfer. With this comes great responsibility. What can we expect from you in the near future?
ABB is not a typical company that follows market trends. We are proud to be the market initiators and someone who embodies innovations. Today, with our global partners, we strive to measure and report data more quickly, securely, accurately, and comprehensively than ever before. We understand that our data is a vital element in making informed decisions for the future – anywhere and anytime.
There is an increasing need for more intuitive and automated solutions, due to the complexity of installations, and ABB Eindhoven strongly believes that modern technology can help us on this journey. We embrace every opportunity to support our customers and users in the specialised field of custody transfer, while keeping the data protected.
We have always been strong advocates for the sustainable development goals (SDG), and we will continue to prioritize sustainability in both the products we create, and the impact these products have on the environment. We have made significant steps in our circularity program, where we are focusing on every stage of the process – from production to transportation, servicing and initial field use. Our ultimate goal for the near future is to reshape our products, focusing even more on sustainability.
Thank you Danny, it was pleasure to talk to you. We are looking forward to seeing what the future holds for us.
