Mitsubishi Power To Employ Emerson Technologies for Largest Hydrogen Hub

In a major announcement, Mitsubishi Power Americas has revealed that it has chosen global software and engineering leader Emerson, for the automation of the world’s largest green hydrogen production and storage facility. The industry-leading hub will facilitate the integration of renewable energy by producing and storing green hydrogen for long duration energy storage.

Under the new scheme of things, Mitsubishi Power will capitalise on the wide-ranging hydrogen production experience and automation software expertise that Emerson brings to the table. This, in turn, will strengthen safety while also pushing down the costs and simplifying maintenance across the life cycle of the facility.

According to the official statement, the Advanced Clean Energy Storage hub in Utah, USA, will make use of renewable electricity in order to power electrolyzers towards the production of green hydrogen. The hydrogen thus produced will be stored underground in salt caverns and will be dispatched when the need to produce clean electricity from turbines fueled by hydrogen arises. This will aid in the stabilization of the grid with sustainable sources while also charting a new course for the decarbonization of western United States.

Michael Ducker, Senior VP for Mitsubishi Power, said, “Generating, storing and transmitting electricity with zero carbon emissions is critical to meeting the world’s sustainable power generation needs.”

The Advanced Clean Energy Storage hub, which has room for up to a hundred caverns, will transform renewable energy through an electrolyzer bank with 220 MW capacity. This process will produce 100 tons of green hydrogen everyday. The facility boasts of storage for 300 GWh of energy in two salt caverns.

Bob Yeager, president of Emerson’s power and water business, said, “One of the most complex issues in power distribution is successfully managing variability of demand and supply to reduce stress on the grid. Mitsubishi Power has successfully leveraged the digital automation stack to develop an innovative, sustainable way to solve that problem, enabling providers to consistently use peak-production renewable energy in peak-consumption hours.”

Ovation Platform of Emerson

Mitsubishi Power will make use of Emerson’s Ovation integrated control and safety platform to enhance the production efficiency of the storage hub while also ensuring that safety is not compromised upon. The Ovation platform will also function to oversee the hydrogen production process. It will also monitor in case of emergency shutdown, and work for protection from unforeseen perils, such as gas and fire. The platform will put together and contextualize data from the third-party systems of the plant.

Emerson’s PACSystems RSTi-EP I/O will make way for the facilitation of field connectivity and project changes without pushing timelines or adding to cost.