Ecolab and Siemens partner to help industry reduce greenhouse gas emissions

Ecolab, Inc., and Siemens today announced a strategic partnership that will help customers accelerate their progress toward sustainability and productivity goals. Together, the companies are launching Climate Intelligence, powered by ECOLAB3D™ and Siemens gPROMS, which is a new innovative solution that allows customers to virtually model different scenarios across their water and energy systems to identify opportunities to conserve water and power while also lowering their greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate Intelligence leverages the unique strengths of Ecolab, the global leader in water, hygiene and infection prevention solutions and services, and Siemens, the global leader in digital twin technology, automation and digitalization. Together, Siemens’ innovative digital twin technology and Ecolab’s ECOLAB3D analytics platform and global portfolio of solutions and expertise can help industrial businesses take concrete steps toward decarbonization through more efficient, less energy-intensive operations.

Traditional utility systems are a source of significant greenhouse gas emissions, as water requires substantial energy to heat, cool, move and treat. By improving water efficiency using new dynamic insights from Climate Intelligence, companies can drive emission reductions and preserve system reliability all at the same time.

“Water carries a significant amount of production plant energy–typically 33% up to 75%–so the opportunity to reduce emissions through more efficient operations is critical,” said Darrell Brown, president and chief operating officer for Ecolab. “As climate and energy challenges unfold around the world, there’s never been a greater need to conserve energy. Ecolab’s and Siemens’ combined expertise in Climate Intelligence can be a path for customers to meet their demanding cost, energy and sustainability goals.”

“Siemens is excited to be partnering with Ecolab on this major initiative to make sustainability more accessible and affordable across the entire spectrum of the process industries,” said Costas Pantelides, CEO of Siemens Process Systems Engineering, a Siemens Digital Industries business. “Using high-fidelity process models coupled with real-time plant data, our technology has been proven to reduce annual CO2 emissions by tens of thousands of tonnes for a typical plant while achieving significant savings in energy costs with no additional capital expenditure. Combining this advanced capability with Ecolab’s substantial presence within the process industry worldwide, we aim to make a major contribution towards the industry’s global sustainability goals.”

Demonstrating early results
Early trials of Climate Intelligence have demonstrated significant results. In one example with a Latin American refinery, Siemens and Ecolab’s Nalco Water business worked to help reduce the carbon footprint associated with each barrel of product produced. Climate Intelligence helped the refinery identify opportunities to maintain or increase production while reducing water use by up to 1,000,000 cubic meters and CO2 emissions by up to 38,000 metric tons annually.

Climate Intelligence is a part of Ecolab’s and Siemens’ overall strategies to help businesses around the world accelerate progress toward ambitious climate goals.

In 2021, Ecolab helped customers conserve 45 trillion British thermal units of energy and avoid 3.6 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions. By 2030, Ecolab aims to help customers become entirely carbon neutral by reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 6 million metric tons annually.

Six years ago, Siemens was one of the world’s first large industrial corporations to commit to becoming climate-neutral by 2030. Since then, Siemens has cut its CO2 emissions by more than half. Additionally, Siemens has helped its customers reduce their CO2 emissions by 87.5 million metric tons in fiscal 2021.