Solomon Associates Earns Patent for GHG Performance Assessment System
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office awarded a patent to Solomon Associates, a performance improvement company for the global energy industry, for its "Method and System for Greenhouse Gas Emissions Performance Assessment and Allocation."
The system provides a standard for assessing greenhouse gas (GHG) performance among refineries worldwide.
Dale Emanuel, president of Solomon Associates, said the newly patented system will provide a fair and accurate assessment of GHG emissions performance among refiners.
The methodology has been proposed by the European Petroleum Industry Association (EUROPIA) as the basis for allocating GHG allowance credits within the European Union’s cap-and-trade system. In the United States, the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) is evaluating the use of Solomon Associates’ system for allocating allowance credits in California in response to the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006.
“In the emerging carbon economy, the fair and accurate assessment of GHG emissions performance becomes increasingly important to the refining industry and other industries with energy-intensive assets,” said Dale Emanuel, president of Solomon Associates. "This patent demonstrates our company’s unique ability to create industry-standard methodologies for comparative performance analysis, as well as the trust we have earned within the global energy industry over the past 30 years.”
Bill Trout, manager of refining studies and one of the methodology’s inventors, added, "This new system not only provides a consistent basis for assessing GHG performance across all worldwide refineries, but also provides an equitable basis for allocating GHG allowances, a growing need of the industry to ensure the cost of regulatory compliance is distributed fairly."
Solomon Associates consultants Mike Hileman, Rick Jones and Robert Broadfoot also participated in the development of the new system.