To reduce its energy consumption and limit the environmental impact of its operations, Liquin conducts research and implements projects aimed at lowering the company’s carbon footprint and making its processes as energy-efficient as possible. Thanks to these initiatives, Liquin has achieved its long-term sustainability goal six years ahead of schedule.
Live dashboards
To monitor its energy and utility consumption, Liquin has developed a set of live dashboards including the Energy Control Room. These dashboards are continuously updated, allowing the company’s engineers to monitor each utility’s consumption per terminal on a daily basis. Once a week, a group of key colleagues from each of Liquin’s terminals examine daily utility usage. If there are any unusual fluctuations, they find out why these deviations are happening. The dashboards also allow the company to compare energy and utility consumption to the projected and actual costs. In this way, the dashboard monitoring drives a lot of Liquin’s energy-saving and sustainability initiatives.
Reducing steam usage
One of the main initiatives has been to reduce steam usage at Botlek Terminal by a finding more efficient solutions. Like a lot the company’s optimisation measures, this project involved having all the relevant data available and asking the right questions, like: Why are systems heated to a particular temperature? Is this necessary all year round?
Reducing emissions without hindering operations
The project was a multi-step process involving a lot of testing to ensure that any changes didn’t have a negative impact on Liquin’s operations. By re-organising the steam network and shutting down parts of it during the warmer months, the company has been able to reduce gas consumption without hindering its business. This in turn has enabled Liquin to reduce CO2 emissions at Botlek Terminal by 60% in two years.
Reaching 2030 target ahead of schedule
Because Botlek Terminal is Liquin’s biggest site, this emissions reduction has made a big contribution to the company’s overall sustainability target. In 2021, the company set itself the ambitious goal of reducing carbon emissions by 42% by 2030. This project helped it reach that goal in 2024.
Finding smarter solutions
One of the biggest challenges in achieving this 42% target was network congestion in the Port of Rotterdam, as the harbour’s existing electricity infrastructure struggles to keep up with the electricity demand of companies wanting to make the energy transition. Electrification is often the easiest way to reduce emissions, but this isn’t always a viable solution for Liquin since there’s a cap on the net capacity. This forces the company to come up with smarter ways of reducing emissions and becoming more sustainable in the future.
A new mindset
The sustainability programme has had a large impact in a relatively short amount of time. Reaching the 42% reduction ahead of schedule has helped raise awareness about energy consumption within the company. It has also become part of people’s mindset in doing business and when implementing changes and new projects. As a result, the whole of Liquin is motivated to set ambitious new targets for 2030 and further down the road in line with SBTi targets.
