END USER green hydrogen products space. We are looking forward to continuing to find solutions for large-scale, low-cost green hydrogen production.
Balancing the future
Controlling and optimizing the operation
Automation has been in play for many decades, with companies having long used distributed control systems( DCS). These systems, which incorporate process-specific control functionality, have become essential to the operations of some of the largest and most significant customer plants, including in steelmaking and cement manufacturing. They have been the brains, heart and lungs of industrial facilities, replacing the uncertainty and inconsistency of some manual tasks, and enabling operators to take the best decisions based on information and data insights coming from the system.
Today, the likes of ABB’ s Ability™ System 800xA ® DCS supports operations to not only maintain and remain stable but also to grow and evolve. While productivity, efficiency, quality, safety and cost remain fundamental to customer businesses, technology systems must also bring innovation and increased levels of competitive advantage. Sustainability, electrification and digitalization will remain critical to the future of all process industries, so the automation and control systems of the future must be ready.
In 2025, there is energy in the hydrogen space, with partners collaborating to bring electrification and automation concepts to reality. By combining the best of our platforms and expertise with some third-party proprietary solutions and customer systems, we can look further into the practical realities of producing green hydrogen through water electrolysis. This aligns with market sentiment, including from the IEA’ s Global Hydrogen Review 2024 that states the electrolyzer sector requires an annual growth rate of 90 percent annually to 2030 just to meet projected demand.
The space is both competitive and under development – the R & D and collaboration requirements are high because the rewards for all will be great, shaping how we live and work. At ABB, we believe in the power of working together because no individual or company has all the answers. For our part, we are bringing high power electrification options, alongside power management and automation solutions, to the table. By investigating and studying technologies that exist in the market today, we can combine solutions and make process faster. This work will gain momentum and make improvements and expansions in the
REFERENCES
When it comes to the future of industry, hydrogen will be part of the mix, and green hydrogen in particular, when it comes to the most environmentally sustainable ways of carrying out operations. With its only biproduct being residual water and oxygen, its impacts could be far-reaching in terms of greenhouse gas reduction in steelmaking and cement manufacturing, and in the myriad other uses. For workers and communities connected to plants, it will also mean cleaner air and better health, as well as job creation potential.
For major technology players, it is clear that there will need to be balance, but we are pushing for progress in terms of bringing forward investment decisions, collaborating with original equipment manufacturing partners and industry companies, and maintaining a focus on the long-term outcomes that will be commercially viable. Only through technology will we be able to bring costs of green hydrogen production and sale down and see it become as normal as using other more conventional fuel sources.
1. The Steel and Concrete Transformation- 2024 market outlook on lower emission steel and concrete. pdf 2. Hydrogen Forecast to 2050 3. Global Hydrogen Review 2024 – Analysis- IEA
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ralph Burgener is Business Unit Manager for High Power Rectifiers( HPR) within the ABB Process Industries division. He has more than 20-years of career experience in ABB, with leadership responsibility for the HPR technologies and the expert engineers in his team. Together, they provide integrated products, services and solutions to help customers optimize their power and productivity resulting in increased availability, lower lifetime investment costs and reach their sustainability targets. ABB’ s HPR sets the global industrial standard for high power rectifier solutions and services in the market. They can be deployed for a range of industries, including aluminium, steel, and hydrogen. Increasingly, they are a key technology in sustainability, lower emissions and fossil-free materials production. A trained electrical engineer by trade, Ralph is an alumnus of the University of Sion, Switzerland. He is based in the Zurich area of Switzerland.
32 FUGITIVE EMISSIONS JOURNAL • APRIL 2025