Held in Houston, TX, from October 28–30, YNOW2024: Impact Your World brought together industry leaders, end users, and partners for an in-depth exploration of best practices, methodologies, and digital innovations transforming industrial operations. Hosted by Yokogawa and KBC (A Yokogawa Company), the event spotlighted how partnerships and technology drive sustainable change.
Pablo Montagna, Sales Executive at KBC, presented on the Optimal Management of Green Hydrogen Systems. He discussed how energy management has shifted with the transition to low-carbon operations. While the optimization of traditional energy systems balances optionality, redundancy, and integration. Today’s operations teams must also address renewable power variability and the management of inventory in batteries or hydrogen storage tanks. With KBC's Visual MESA® Energy Management System (VM-EMS), energy companies can monitor performance, calculate key performance indicators, and perform real-time optimizations, as shown in Figure 1. VM-EMS not only minimizes costs and emissions but also enables future-forward optimizations that align with forecasted data and emissions targets to create a streamlined pathway to sustainable decarbonization.
Adding to this, Michiel Spoor, Principal Consultant at KBC, led a session on Driving the Energy Transition from Strategy to Action. He explained how a roadmap to net-zero emissions gives engineers practical steps to balance energy security, affordability, and sustainability. By categorizing emissions into Scope 1 (direct), Scope 2 (indirect), and Scope 3 (value chain), he demonstrated the importance of these distinctions for building effective carbon reduction strategies. He also addressed common challenges like budget and resource constraints, showing how KBC’s targeted strategies and technologies help companies overcome these barriers.
Both speakers emphasized the outlook of an optimized energy company that focuses on efficient operations, real-time emissions tracking, and comprehensive roadmaps that support both profitability and sustainability. They stressed the need for early investment in infrastructure and technologies to stay competitive in the energy transition.
A key takeaway from Michiel’s presentation was the role of benchmarking and gap analysis in strengthening decarbonization strategies. KBC’s IP3EM (Integrated Process & Energy, Emissions, Economics Model) enables energy companies to benchmark performance, identify improvement areas, and establish measurable goals. This tool integrates process models (for energy demand), utility systems (match demand with energy supply), and carbon capture technology (to get to net-zero) for real-time optimization.
Five key takeaways for energy leaders emerged from both sessions:
These sessions provided actionable insights, guiding engineers through the energy transition towards a future for Bringing Decarbonization to LifeTM.