Challenges and technological solutions on green hydrogen

Challenges facing green hydrogen Although green hydrogen is gaining ground in all industries, it still has several challenges to face and which should be known.

• Profitability limited by poor design knowledge

The expansion and improvement of green hydrogen plant designs is one of the aspects that must be addressed to satisfy market demand. However, optimizing plant designs and end-to-end green hydrogen systems can be costly and very complex. Additionally, many of these large green hydrogen facilities are built within existing industry clusters, adding another design dimension to ensure their impact on existing operations is limited during the transition to green hydrogen.

• Limited skilled labor and high operating costs

Although the rise of green hydrogen will bring about many new job opportunities, the training and skills needed to support the hydrogen economy are still largely lacking. As the industry matures, a shortage of worker skills will slow progress. Also, green hydrogen is very complex as well as expensive to store and transport. It is highly flammable and has a low volumetric density, which means that significant investments have to be made in gas pipelines and specialized means of transport.

• Large energy losses

Green hydrogen loses a considerable amount of energy at all points in the supply chain. About a third of the energy used to produce hydrogen is lost during the electrolysis process. Significant losses occur when hydrogen is liquefied, extra energy inputs are required when transporting it, and the use of hydrogen in fuel cells causes additional energy loss. These aspects are quite a challenge, since they must end up being optimized.

• About the costs of green hydrogen

The most important challenge is to monetize green hydrogen. This is produced profitably in countries where the sun is an important part of the climate, but, nevertheless, many of the destinations are physically far away. Thus, dedicated pipes must be given taking into account the increased costs and time involved. This creates the need for dedicated pipelines, with all the associated lead times and costs. In addition, the valuation of green hydrogen implies the certification of guarantee of origin and the convertibility into carbon credits. Both processes are still in development and are the subject of intense debate.

Technological solutions

Between increased investments, institutional support, engineering development and worker qualification, digital technology is key to accelerating the transition to green hydrogen, especially Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT), a combination of artificial intelligence and Internet of Things technology that enables optimization and automation of systems through improved data management and analysis. The following are four areas where digital technology could accelerate the green hydrogen transition.

• Digital twins

Before committing capital, many variables must be considered. From photovoltaic energy to the capacity of the electrolyzer, passing through buffers such as energy and hydrogen storage. Digital twins can model multiple designs and scenarios, including variables such as weather, volatility in buyer demand, and local infrastructure (current and future), optimizing each design to maximize return on investment and minimize risk.

• Monitoring and control

Energy consumption, plant performance, production rates, purity, and storage are among the KPIs for hydrogen production that require visibility to ensure efficient production. AIoT can offer rapid anomaly detection using smart alarms, sensors on assets to monitor KPIs and asset health, and remote cloud-based monitoring beyond control rooms. Thus, costs can be reduced by around 15 percent through lower energy consumption and an optimized workforce. Taking advantage of the monitoring models, consistent with the digital design twins, allows us to see possible deviations from the business plan and take actions to reduce possible losses.

• Advanced analytics

Analytics can transform data into business intelligence with actionable insights. For green hydrogen, learning through data from plants, tanks, pipelines, power buyers, and even weather, and applying analysis at the plant or fleet level can provide corrective action recommendations to maximize yields. . Energy losses can be prevented by predicting defects and optimizing the electrolyzer uptime. Leveraging analytical models enables strategic and tactical decisions to be made to optimize returns.

• Certificates of origin

The guarantee of origin is a prerequisite for monetizing green hydrogen by certifying the renewable nature of all electricity consumed. AIoT-monitored facilities can leverage near-real-time data to automate entry to collateral-of-origin issuers. This avoids manual processing, offers more confidence, reliability and improves future readiness as more certifications evolve towards real time and automation. AIoT can also ensure end-to-end traceability throughout the entire life cycle of green hydrogen.]]>