Green hydrogen, produced from renewable energies, only accounts for 0.1% of global hydrogen production. However, this energy represents an ambitious and achievable challenge to resolve the problems of intermittent energy production and to decarbonize heavy industry. Mastering green hydrogen brings many challenges, but modern digital technologies would make it possible to meet them.
The business world, politicians and investors clearly see the potential of green hydrogen to compensate for the intermittency of certain energies.
Produced by electrolysis of water (separation of hydrogen and oxygen) from renewable electricity, green hydrogen only accounts for 0.1% of global production. But the falling costs of renewable electricity and electrolysis technologies show that green hydrogen could become the best clean energy investment.
For a large number of industrial players, including those in the oil and gas sectors, green hydrogen is seen as the best way to get around the problem of intermittent energy while continuing the decarbonization of very energy-intensive industries (chemistry, transport).
The challenges of green hydrogen
Although it is making progress in the industrial sector, green hydrogen faces four major challenges:
• design optimization and return on investment: Faced with market demand, manufacturers will have to improve their green hydrogen production plants. Given the lack of data and the “youngness” of the market, optimizing the design of green hydrogen production plants and systems will be costly and very complex. On the other hand, many of these installations are built within existing industrial groups. However, it will be necessary to rethink the design of these plants in order to limit the impacts on existing operations during the transition phase to green hydrogen;
• limited specialized labor and high operational costs : while the development of green hydrogen will enable numerous job creations, many individuals will not have the necessary skills to integrate into the hydrogen economy. As the industry continues its path to maturity, it could be held back by a lack of skilled workers. On the other hand, green hydrogen faces a major problem: the high cost of its storage and transport.
Flammable and of low volumetric density, green hydrogen requires large investments in pipelines and specialized transport;
• large energy losses: at each stage of the supply chaingreen hydrogen loses a lot of energy. Around 30 to 35% of the energy used to produce hydrogen is lost during the electrolysis process; liquefying or converting hydrogen (into ammonia for example) wastes 13 to 25% of energy. On the other hand, the use of hydrogen in fuel cells wastes 40 to 50% of energy. If these problems are not resolved, it will be necessary to increase the production of renewable energies to “feed” electrolysis;
• intermediaries: if green hydrogen is produced in very sunny places (Australia, Tunisia, Spain, etc.), industrial intermediaries are often thousands of kilometers away. Consequence: it is necessary to install special pipelines with all that this implies in terms of costs and time.
Technological solutions
In order to accelerate the transition to green hydrogen, the sector can count on increasingly significant investments, increasingly strong support from governments, major advances in engineering as well as highly qualified workers.
But this sector can above all count on the digital revolution and in particular the artificial intelligence of objects (AIoT or Artificial Intelligence of Things), a combination of artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things capable of optimizing and automating systems thanks to the management of masses of advanced data and fine analyses. Digital technology can accelerate the transition to green hydrogen in four major sectors:
• digital twins: Before injecting money, investors want to know what system configuration will allow them to optimize the return on investment. Digital twins can conceptualize multiple models and scenarios by including variables (weather, local infrastructure, demands from financial intermediaries) in order to optimize each model, maximize investments and reduce risks;
•monitoring and control: Energy consumption, site performance, production rates, purity and storage are key performance indicators for hydrogen production that require high visibility to ensure efficient productions. AIoT makes it possible to detect anomalies very quickly using intelligent alarms, sensors monitoring these indicators and monitoring and control systems in the cloud. Thanks to these systems, costs can be reduced by 10 to 20%;
• advanced data analyses: Advanced analytics can turn data into business intelligence. For green hydrogen, data collected from sites, tanks, pipelines and even weather conditions can provide recommendations to correct certain problems or maximize production;
• the certificate of origin: the guarantee of origin is the prerequisite for the monetization of green hydrogen, because it certifies the renewable nature of the electricity consumed. Installations and control systems driven by AIoT transmit data in real time and make it possible to automate the electricity supply, but also the traceability of the life cycle of green hydrogen.
Green hydrogen is a viable solution for the decarbonization of the industrial, chemical and transport sectors. With massive investments, government support, advances in engineering and a highly skilled workforce, digital solutions like AIoT will ensure the transition to green hydrogen while playing a leading role in decarbonization globally. The spectacular drop in costs promised within ten years is an opportunity to be seized by many industrial sectors, including transport (aeronautics, maritime, road).
