A ABB presented his ABB Ability™ OPTIMAX® power management system to the market of H2V (green hydrogen), to help reduce production costs, allowing real-time visibility of energy consumption in operations.
O green hydrogen made by electrolysis — a process of using electricity from renewable sources to split water into hydrogen and oxygen — is widely considered an important energy vector for achieving a low-carbon future. However, it presents significant challenges in the form of high production costs and energy-intensive processes.
According to the Green Hydrogen Catapult, a global initiative made up of leading energy companies, to increase production capacity to 50 times what is needed, the cost to produce H2V needs to fall by 50% to less than US＄2/kg by 2026.
ABB's OPTIMAX® aims to address all aspects of a hydrogen plant's life cycle, from simulation in the design and engineering phases to real-time visualization and monitoring during operation.
The software measures bidirectional energy flows and carbon dioxide emissions, providing contextual data that operators can use to determine the optimal levels of electricity consumption needed to support plant processes and minimize waste.
The transparency offered by the solution can also be applied to increase the efficiency and safety of each electrolyser module being operated within the plant, regulating the speed of each module and ensuring it is only used when necessary.
“Scaling up green hydrogen production requires significant capital investment as well as high operating costs,” said Sleman Saliba, Global Power Management Product Manager at ABB Process Automation.
“Almost 70% of the total operating costs to operate a hydrogen plant come from the electricity required to split the water molecule in the electrolysis process,” he reported.
“With OPTIMAX®, for a technology investment of between 1% and 3%, operators can run their industrial processes more energy-efficiently and achieve up to 20% reduction in electricity-based costs,” highlighted Saliba .
Incorporating daily planning, operators can also use OPTIMAX® to plan ahead to trade competitively with the grid, developing a circular energy system based on forecasts of renewable energy availability in relation to demand, while also considering current electricity prices. Marketplace.
The solution can also be used to optimize the integration of H2V with existing hydrogen networks and any future infrastructure that may be developed.
