J. Burdette, Emerson, Richmond, Virginia
Hydrogen (H2) is a critical resource for many industries, especially as sustainability remains a high priority. As a fuel, H2 has the potential to help reduce the environmental impact of emissions-heavy markets such as oil and gas, chemicals and metals. In addition, its promise and popularity are proven by its market value and projected growth. According to Grand View Research, the worldwide market for H2 generation was estimated at $170.14 B in 2023 and is expected to flourish at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.3% from 2024 to 2030. 1
However, generation is just one part of the H2 value chain. In addition to production, the value chain includes storage and distribution. The success of the H2 industry depends on the success of all stages of this value chain, and each stage depends on the other (FIG. 1). As the industry continues to change and the global demand for H2 continues to grow, companies within the value chain must work together to meet it.
This level of collaboration requires agility and accuracy. An organization’s agility depends on its ability to make fast, informed decisions, and the speed and accuracy of decision-making depends on access to real-time data. Access to data from all parts of the value chain is necessary for maximum visibility and control. Monitoring and sharing information, such as flowrates, leakage and emissions, between the three stages of the H2 value chain can help all parties increase productivity and efficiency and support environmental reporting requirements. Digital transformation powered by control and software systems makes this access and sharing possible.
The benefits of digital transformation. Fundamentally, digital transformation is a process that a machine, system or facility undergoes that allows operators to access real-time data, use it to make decisions and take subsequent actions. It includes connecting smart technologies together to provide visibility and control that empowers the right people to make the right decisions at the right time. The result of the continuous improvement this process provides includes greater efficiency in production systems and work processes.
Having the raw data from one device is not enough in most cases to make informed decisions. Multiple data streams analyzed together can result in a more complete process story. Analyzing the insights from these data streams provides process information that supports actions that must be taken to achieve goals.
The absence of data is usually not the main issue in industrial processes such as H2 production, transportation and distribution. Often, the challenge is how to effectively access data at the equipment level and transport it to information technology resources either onsite or in the Cloud for interpretation and visualization by analytics software. However, companies do not have to face this challenge alone.
It is important to work with a digital transformation partner with extensive H2 experience and a scalable technology stack that includes valves, pressure regulators, sensors, automation hardware, and edge and industrial software. A provider like this can help companies identify the most lucrative opportunities and develop and deploy the most appropriate digital transformation solution. Once deployed, companies can prove return on investment (ROI) and scale up accordingly.
Analytics that scale with change. Once produced, H2 must be stored, transported and distributed. This process may have islands of automation throughout the value chain. Connecting these islands and unlocking data within can have many benefits, including greater efficiency, productivity, reliability and safety. It can also create a digital trail that benefits all stages of the value change by helping to identify trends, detect errors, perform root cause analyses, predict failures and provide insights that drive continuous improvement.
Analytics software makes it possible for organizations within the value chain to connect these islands and better collaborate for greater industry success. Analytics software can communicate with multiple devices and pool their data streams into one location to identify trends and capture historical information. With the ability to access real-time data and insights across many devices and applications, operators can continuously improve system performance, efficiency and sustainability.
Facilities often use many communication protocols based on the device or application. Industrial softwarea provides a data link enabling data importation and connection of one tag to different protocols (FIG. 2). This makes it possible for any field device to communicate with supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), plant analytics and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems or to record information on any database or the Cloud with Internet of Things (IoT) protocols.
If a company is keeping track of assets located at various sites globally, being able to see the data from each asset in one place can help operators quickly and easily understand overall equipment effectiveness and productivity. They can measure and compare running times, alarms and trends to other locations, times of days and resources used.
Once collected, translating data from multiple sources and streams into meaningful insights requires an advanced integrated solution to deliver on the expected value of the dynamic H2 industry. Some industrial analytic softwareb offers powerful tools for analyzing and reporting historical data. These tools can translate data into easy-to-understand trends, charts, tables and data analyses, as well as comprehensive reports. These sophisticated data analysis tools can be deployed locally or over the web. Web dashboards can also be used for data analysis with HTML5 Web Clients.
Some industrial software can also integrate a complete historical data analysis tool that does not require supplementary tools. Historical tools like this allow access to all database types to extract data and represent data on graphically diverse charts.
Software tools like these can scale with growing companies and evolving processes to provide flexibility due to various communication options on the plant floor and beyond. This makes for a powerful digitization outcome that delivers data-driven insights.
Real-time insights at the speed of business. In such a dynamic and evolving industry, real-time data and insights can provide a level of certainty for organizations to quickly respond to change with confident decisions and actions that lead to success.
As the H2 industry grows, the need to visualize and interpret the various data points from production stations, electrolyzers, pipelines and refueling stations will continue to evolve. Furthermore, as more decisions are needed, the ability to collect, report and visualize the data will become more valuable for companies to remain competitive.
To meet this need, it is important to identify technologies that can support this growing infrastructure. The scalability and flexibility of the control and software systems that are part of the H2 value chain are critical. As the industry and technology continue to grow, organizations with a visualization platform that can adapt as applications change and provide an analytics solution that can fit the changing needs of the customer will be at an advantage. HP
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