Helping businesses in energy infrastructure become more circular

It’s a common misconception that this simply isn’t possible. For many, there is a ‘business as usual’ approach, which can be understandable.  

However, what if the well-established environmental benefits of circular business models could be achieved by this sector, while delivering cost savings and new revenue streams too?  

This can be a reality and there is already great work taking place to achieve this. 

For those in the sector wanting to make that change, one of the most important things companies can do to achieve circularity, and the resulting economic benefits, is having a true knowledge of the assets you’re managing.  

This means knowing the material makeup of your assets, and from there you can begin to build out a picture of what is valuable, what can you get out into the market. This applies at all stages of an asset’s lifecycle.    

As well as helping with the management of assets at end-of-life, and ensuring they have a second life, a clear understanding of your assets also helps with repairs and maintenance. It’s like servicing a car, where you know what equipment does what job and what it will take to repair it if it needs replacing every few years, for example.  

As things stand, those handling assets at end of life are finding that there is no blueprint and very little in terms of plans about what to do to keep these parts in the circular economy. It has been a challenge to find people able to explain decommissioning, as much of this is new experience 

I think as a first win, we need to be much more open about data and data capture and understanding the actual materials that we're working from.

This can be done by looking at digital twins, digital passports, inventories cataloguing and categorising. Having this data will save operators money in the long-term and help keep items in the circular economy for longer.  

For example, when the oil and gas industry starts to decommission, having this understanding means they've got a better idea of the girders that could go to building a local agricultural shed, for example, rather than landfill or export. That’s a circular move which would deliver cost savings too.  

The number of concrete mattresses that are at the bottom of the ocean, the number of blades, and what they're made of, and how they could be recycled down. All of these are potential items for the circular economy if used correctly.  

If you have better knowledge, you can start to challenge. You can challenge for easily repairable items, which could deliver long-term cost savings, rather than quick win pursuit of linear approaches for swapping out items with new and simply disposing of redundant components. 

There is also an economic benefit to be achieved in staying ahead of upcoming legislation, gaining a potential advantage over your competitors.

The Scottish Government’s  Circular Economy Act is currently out for consultation and names Net Zero Infrastructure as a priority sector. The proposals will look to “maximise the role of circularity for critical raw materials in Scotland.”

We know the economic benefits of doing this can be huge. The Strategy itself highlights significant economic opportunities, such as recovering value from decommissioned oil and gas facilities and wind turbines.

We at Zero Waste Scotland have also published interactive systems maps of Scotland's  energy infrastructure sector to illustrate the factors influencing circular economy principles and practices. This can be seen here.