Computing for a sustainable future
Every year, humanity uses some 40% more of the earth’s resources than the earth can sustainably supply in that year. Clearly, this cannot go on forever. Awareness of this is growing and major transitions are starting to take shape. As an expert in developing computational software, VORtech sees an important role for itself in developing the software for computing and simulation that is needed to make these transitions. We are happy to see this already reflected in our client portfolio.
Koos Huijssen, partner at VORtech, is leading the business development for VORtech in the sustainability sector. As Koos sees it, there are many opportunities for VORtech to grow in this direction. Koos: “Our projects in the sustainability field range from very practical work to strategic applications.”
Simulation workflows
As an example of very practical work, Koos mentions the automation of simulation workflows in the energy sector. Koos: “Simulation is a core activity in designing systems for a more sustainable energy system. By facilitating the simulation process, we contribute indirectly to better designs as the experts can compute more alternatives with less errors.”
As an example, Koos mentions a project that VORtech did for TenneT. An automated workflow has been developed to assess whether the high-voltage network meets supply and demand. After doing quite a lot of similar projects, VORtech came to understand the dynamics in these projects and developed a standard way of working.
According to Koos, the challenges here are not so much in the computations but rather in properly modelling the workflow and building the right kind of automation. Koos: “Here we leverage the fact that we are not only software engineers, but also have an engineering background. Therefore, we can understand what is being simulated, what the data means that goes into the simulation and how the output will be interpreted. All this is needed to have an effective conversation with the users. But it also means that we can ask the right questions to challenge their tacit assumptions. “
Dealing with data
Koos also sees another development that will play a role in making the world more sustainable: the use of sensor data. Koos: “There is a huge increase in the availability of all kinds of sensor data and this can be used to monitor our environment and as input for simulations and computations to evaluate scenarios. Think for example of the data that is used by the IPCC as a basis for the climate scenarios.”
According to Koos, VORtech has a lot to offer for managing all this data, based on its experience in the water management sector. There, VORtech helps to build operational systems that collect data from many different sources and feed that data into computations to forecast the water levels along the coast. These systems are not only very complex, but they are also critical. Koos: “So, we must build really robust software there.”
An important aspect of these kind of systems is the visualization of the data and simulation results. For this, again, interaction with the users is essential, according to Koos. “The users must be able to infer the right information from the data quickly with no room for misinterpretations. And they need effective mechanisms to dive into the data when they need to. You can only build such interactive visualizations in close collaboration with the users.”
Models for a sustainable industry
More complex in computational terms is VORtechs work on simulation models for industrial installations. Industry is an important source of greenhouse gas emissions and uses a lot of energy. Therefore, there is a lot to gain in terms of sustainability from innovations in industry. But these innovations often require profound insight into the industrial processes to design sometimes fundamentally new alternatives. For both this insight and the evaluation of alternatives, computing is essential.
An example of this kind of work is our contribution to software that is used in the design and operation of ethylene furnaces. This is a great example where computing is used to investigate how the footprint of an industrial installation can be reduced. Koos’s colleague Dirk van Meeuwen has a background in the process industry. Dirk: “We see clients in the chemical industry making a strong effort to optimize their installations to meet ever more stringent environmental regulations. They understand that they must act now to maintain the viability of their business.”
There are several skills that VORtech leverages for these kinds of projects. Dirk van Meeuwen explains: “First of all, we understand the chemistry that is going on as we have people here that have a background in chemical engineering. But I think what makes us special for these kinds of projects is that we understand the mathematics behind the computation. So, we can improve the algorithms to make the computation more accurate, more robust and faster. We have a lot of experience in high performance computing. That’s not as exotic as it may sound: you can already apply the basic techniques to enhance the computing speed on a somewhat stronger laptop. We’re also onto the latest developments to replace computational models with machine learning models. That promises to make models both very fast and efficient but is still rather experimental now.”
Digital twins
Dirk mentions another trend that is coming on strongly and that will play an important role as companies are making their installations more sustainable: digital twins. Dirk: “There is a lot of hype around this these days, but also some substance. For example: we developed a digital twin for the indoor climate of data centers, called 4DCOOL. Data centers use a massive amount of energy for their cooling and the number and size of data centers is growing rapidly. Also, the water that they use for cooling can have an environmental impact. So, there is a lot to gain in sustainability from optimizing the cooling.”
That is exactly where 4DCOOL helps: it gives detailed insight in the temperature in the server room of data centers and offers simulation tools to quickly assess the effect of changes in the cooling. With 4DCOOL, operators can tune the cooling for minimum energy use.
VORtech developed 4DCOOL with partners from industry and research. Dirk: “Our main contribution here was to develop the algorithms to combine the model of the air flows in the server room with the readings of the actual temperature sensors. This is called data-assimilation or model-data-fusion. In this case, it is used to make the flow simulation very realistic as it is continuously calibrated with the actual temperatures. With such a well-calibrated model, whatever scenario you are going to compute will closely reflect what will happen in reality. Data centers can use this application to optimize their cooling and thereby reduce the energy needed for that.”
“We see many clients that want to use the combination of models and real-time data and quickly explore scenarios for whatever it is they are modelling. At some point, they may even have such calibrated simulation models in the control loop. Most of our clients are understandably very hesitant in this respect, but I think that we’ll be seeing that ever more in the future.”
Computing for sustainable technology
Dirk sees many other potential applications of VORtech’s experience in the sustainability field. “The assets that are needed to make the switch to a sustainable economy must all be designed and optimized. For example, the power grid needs to be extended to accommodate the quickly growing demand for electricity. And we will probably also be using the grid in a different way, allowing more flexibility.”
“It takes a lot of computing to find the best solution for that,” according to Dirk. He adds: “And then there are things like heat networks and geothermal installations and all the infrastructure that will be needed for a hydrogen economy. Many of these can be designed perfectly with existing commercial applications. But the requirements on these commercial applications will also evolve as users are trying to squeeze the maximum out of a design. I sincerely believe that we can bring a lot of innovation and improvement here.”
Environmental models
The final category where VORtech helps in the transition to a sustainable future is in environmental models. Mark Roest from VORtech explains that this has been a long-time part of VORtechs business: “We started working on the IMAGE-model from the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency some fifteen years ago and we are still involved in the further development. This is a model that simulates the combined effect of many environmental developments like climate change and land use. It is a perfect way to assess how all these developments interact and what the effect of new international treaties could be. In a similar vein, we have contributed to the LOTOS-EUROS-model that models the ozone, particulate matter and aerosols in the atmosphere.”
VORtech provides various services for the developers of these kinds of models. Mark: “An important aspect is that many of these models are created by people who are experts in the thing that is being modelled, like ozone or climate. They usually do a decent enough job in making the software, but at the end of the day their strength is in modelling and not so much in software development. So, we can help them with enhancing the quality of the code. For example, by introducing a proper architecture and making sure that there is good test coverage so that nothing breaks when changes are made. After all, these models are used for very important decisions, so they had better be good.”
High performance computing is also a skill that is in high demand for this kind of application. Mark: “These are always very large and complex models that take a lot of computing time. At the same time, you want to play with these models as much as you can to explore scenarios. Having a model that takes days to compute doesn’t help. It’s always very welcome if we scrape even a little bit off from that computing time.”
Computing for a sustainable future
Koos, Dirk and Mark agree that VORtech has a lot to offer in the transition to a sustainable future. Koos: “As a company, we have decided to give preference to projects that make the world better. In our sales and acquisition, we aim for work with a sustainability dimension. The younger generation feels very strongly about this, but also the senior people at VORtech are highly motivated to put their experience at work for improving the world and reducing environmental impact. I’m really glad that we have such a clear position on this.”
Mark adds one last twist to the discussion: “Computing itself also takes energy and the huge growth in data centers is itself a burden to the environment. There is a lot of research going on to reduce that burden, for instance by using special processors like in neuromorphic computing. But in the short term, we’ll just have to make the computations that we do as efficient as possible. And in the end, that is what many of our clients ask from us and what we’re good at.”