Method and apparatus for controlling an industrial gas plant complex

A system for controlling an industrial gas plant complex comprising one or more industrial gas plants powered by one or more renewable power sources, the system comprising:

• at least one hardware processor operable to perform:
• receiving time-dependent predicted power data for a pre-determined future time period from the one or more renewable power sources;
• receiving time-dependent predicted operational characteristic data for each industrial gas plant, the time-dependent predicted operational characteristic data including data for:
• hydrogen storage for hydrogen output from a hydrogen production plant;
• electrolyzer hydrogen produced for the hydrogen production plant;
• nitrogen storage for nitrogen storage of an air separation unit (ASU);
• and/or
• ammonia flow to storage for an ammonia loop of the ammonia production plant;
• and
• utilizing the predicted power data and predicted characteristic data in an optimization model to generate a set of state variables for the one or more industrial gas plants such that the optimization model defines the predicted power data and predicted characteristic data as a set of non-linear equations and the state variables are generated by solving the set of non-linear equations, the one or more industrial gas plants comprising the hydrogen production plant and the ammonia production plant;
• utilizing the generated state variables to generate a set of control set points for the one or more industrial gas plants for maximizing ammonia production of an ammonia production plant;
• and
• sending the control set points to a control system to control the industrial gas plant complex by adjusting one or more control set points of the one or more industrial gas plants.

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

• receiving time-dependent predicted power data for a pre-determined future time period from the one or more renewable power sources;
• receiving time-dependent predicted operational characteristic data for each industrial gas plant, the time-dependent predicted operational characteristic data including data for:
• hydrogen storage for hydrogen output from a hydrogen production plant;
• electrolyzer hydrogen produced for the hydrogen production plant;
• nitrogen storage for nitrogen storage of an air separation unit (ASU);
• and/or
• ammonia flow to storage for an ammonia loop of the ammonia production plant;
• and
• utilizing the predicted power data and predicted characteristic data in an optimization model to generate a set of state variables for the one or more industrial gas plants such that the optimization model defines the predicted power data and predicted characteristic data as a set of non-linear equations and the state variables are generated by solving the set of non-linear equations, the one or more industrial gas plants comprising the hydrogen production plant and the ammonia production plant;
• utilizing the generated state variables to generate a set of control set points for the one or more industrial gas plants for maximizing ammonia production of an ammonia production plant of the one or more industrial gas plants;
• and
• sending the control set points to a control system to control the one or more industrial gas plant complex by adjusting one or more control set points of the one or more industrial gas plants.