Method and apparatus for managing industrial gas production

A system for controlling an industrial gas production facility comprising one or more industrial gas plants powered by a power network including one or more renewable power sources, the system comprising:

• at least one hardware processor operable to perform the steps of:
• receiving time-dependent power data representative of one or more operational parameters of the power network;
• receiving time-dependent operational characteristic data representative of operational parameters of the one or more industrial gas plants, the operational parameters of the one or more industrial gas plants including:
• at least one hydrogen production operational characteristic variable, at least one hydrogen storage variable, at least one air separation unit (ASU) variable for nitrogen production and/or nitrogen storage, and at least one ammonia loop predictor variable for ammonia production;
• defining one or more power constraints for the operational parameters of the power network;
• defining one or more process constraints for the operational parameters of each industrial gas plant;
• generating, based on the power data, the operational characteristic data, the one or more power constraints and the one or more process constraints, control set point values for the one or more industrial gas plants to achieve a pre-determined production parameter for the industrial gas production facility, the generating of the control set point values including:
• a master controller implementing a pre-defined model predictive control (PMC) to generate control variables based on at least some of the received time-dependent operational characteristic data representative of the operational parameters of the one or more industrial gas plants, the control variables including electrolyzer hydrogen produced and/or ammonia output;
• and
• sending the control set point values to a control system to control the one or more industrial gas plants by adjusting one or more control set points of the industrial gas plants to achieve the pre-determined production parameter for the industrial gas production facility.

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing a program of instructions executable by a machine to perform a method of controlling an industrial gas production facility comprising one or more industrial gas plants powered by a power network including one or more renewable power sources, the method being executed by at least one hardware processor, the method comprising:

• receiving time-dependent power data representative of operational parameters of the power network;
• receiving time-dependent operational characteristic data representative of operational parameters of the one or more industrial gas plants, the operational parameters of the one or more industrial gas plants including:
• at least one hydrogen production operational characteristic variable, at least one hydrogen storage variable, at least one air separation unit (ASU) variable for nitrogen production and/or nitrogen storage, and at least one ammonia loop predictor variable for ammonia production;
• defining one or more power constraints for the operational parameters of the power network;
• defining one or more process constraints for the operational parameters of each industrial gas plant;
• generating, based on the power data, the operational characteristic data, the one or more power constraints and the one or more process constraints, control set point values for the one or more industrial gas plants to achieve a pre-determined production parameter for the industrial gas production facility, the generating of the control set point values including:
• a master controller implementing a pre-defined model predictive control (PMC) to generate control variables based on at least some of the received time-dependent operational characteristic data representative of the operational parameters of the one or more industrial gas plants, the control variables including electrolyzer hydrogen produced and/or ammonia output;
• and
• sending the control set point values to a control system to control the one or more industrial gas plants by adjusting one or more control set points of the industrial gas plants to achieve the pre-determined production parameter for the industrial gas production facility.