Figuring out when less is more, from a business carbon standpoint

My interview with a customer of today's blog topic, Aspen Technology, prompted me to think a little more deeply about that tired old corporate management adage: "Do more with less."

That's because Aspen's software, which includes the AspenONE carbon dioxide capture-simulation software, allows companies to explore what-if scenarios related to their carbon emission reductions. In effect, the technology figures out whether or not the "more" that a company is thinking about doing to produce fewer emissions in their manufacturing or production processes will actually have the intended impact. Aspen Technology believes that companies will use this software to assess and analyze their carbon profile which, in turn, will allow them to figure out how to participate in cap and trade emissions marketplaces.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (which actually had a part in the original creation of Aspen Technology during the 1970s oil crisis) is using the software to analyze potential data related to parasitic energy loads created through carbon dioxide capture. Randy Fields, executive director of the conservation research program for the MIT Energy Initiative, says the university's staff and students uses the software to help explore the impact of various post-combustion capture methods that could be applied at coal plants. "The Aspen software is allowing us to look at the what-if scenarios around the clean-up," Fields says. "We've also done some studies on new technologies."

Other users of the Aspen Technology software are the Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth, the University of Texas at Austin, Cansolve Technologies, American Electric Power and Rentech.