FEATURED PAPER
By Hamad Essa Aldossary
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Introduction
Circular economy remains one of the approaches that favors sustainability in the oil and gas industry. While this approach is often employed at the national level, organizations are incorporating it to enhance productivity and survive the highly competitive business environment. Circular economy in the oil and gas industry has become a core component that seeks to enhance competitive advantage and reduce overall environmental challenges. In the modern business environment, there are concerns about the negative environmental impacts arising from their production processes. The adoption of the traditional linear models (take-make-dispose) has proved inefficient in the long term. Therefore, organizations are embracing the circular economy principles to foster efficiency, recycling, and sustainability. Also, the growing need for a lower carbon footprint has pushed organizations to adopt more sustainable approaches. Circular economy integration is most suitable for gas processing facilities because normally the gas comes with impurities, which is a potential opportunity to re-use or recycle in addition to the high demand for energy, which can be converted to renewables.
The gas industry involves several systems that have a lot of by-products that might be considered as waste. A high number of chemical processing plants across the globe are currently using old processes leading to poor waste management, which is evident in many facilities (Sharma et al., 2023). In the gas industry, waste valorization, heat recovery, and resource looping consisting of circular economy principles can improve system performance. This therefore implies that organizations across the oil and gas sector can improve operational efficiency, reduce expenditures and therefore encourage compliance with environmental laws (Sharma et al., 2023). Nevertheless, the application of circular economy in the gas industry is still low and this calls for integration of specific industry-based frameworks to enhance these practices for the future. This paper explores the role of circular economy (CE) in enhancing sustainability within gas processing facilities and how to integrate its principles with project management.
Literature Review
Circular economy can be described as a model of sustainable production and supply depending on recycling or regeneration of materials or products to extend the cycle of production sustainably and/or in an eco-friendly manner. It is a system focused on the reduction of waste and optimization of resource utilization (Geissdoerfer et al., 2017). Hence, organizations are seeking to achieve goals such as durability, material recycling, usage, and the adoption of a closed-loop system. The circular economy principles are based on the industrial ecology and systems approach focused on cost reduction and sustainability.
The circular economy approach has been implemented in a range of contexts in organizations such as manufacturing, construction, and energy organizations (Riadinskaia & Cherepovitsyna, 2023). In this case, project management aims to separate economic development and resource utilization, thus resulting in lower costs in the long run. Normally, this exercise takes place during the feed/design stage in which the project team optimizes the production processes as much as possible while maintaining the same excellent output. The implementation of circular economy in the gas facilities projects has its advantages, such as a decrease in carbon footprint and turning waste into useful materials. Similarly, several studies have established that CE is capable of promoting sustainability aspects particularly in core activities such as facility design, operations, and maintenance (Golagha et al., 2024). It also emphasizes the need for innovation, and the use of technology in achieving more effective and efficient circular strategies.
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How to cite this paper: Aldossary, H. E. (2025). Effective Circular Economy in Gas Processing Facilities Projects; PM World Journal, Vol. XIV, Issue VII, July. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/pmwj154-Jul2025-Aldossary-effective-circular-economy-in-gas-processing-facilities-projects.pdf
About the Author
Hamad Essa Aldossary
Saudi Arabia
My name is Hamad E. Aldossary. I hold a degree in mechanical engineering and a master’s degree in business administration. With over 8 years of experience in project management, I have successfully overseen projects of varying sizes and complexities. I currently serve as a Project Engineer at Saudi Aramco, contributing to delivering Jafurah Gas Project-one of the largest and most ambitious gas developments in Saudi Arabia. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me at hamad.e.aldossary@gmail.com
