10058772Development of an autonomous control system to enable commercial deployment of novel green hydrogen generatorsClosedLaunchpadInnovate UKMany fossil fuel consumers want to use green hydrogen to decarbonise. But local hydrogen production by on-site electrolysis is often uneconomic, or not possible due to grid capacity limitations. Cheaper green hydrogen from distant sources is rendered too expensive by the high cost of transporting hydrogen. Industry is now focusing on ammonia as a way of transporting hydrogen at low cost, and projects are planned to convert this back to hydrogen at very large-scale at centralised facilities. Unfortunately, smaller-scale end users such as fuel cell bus and truck operators who are distant from these locations will not be able to access this low-cost hydrogen. Catalsys has developed a novel chemical reactor and catalyst system that will efficiently crack ammonia at the required scale. Our system will fit in a shipping container, is self-contained and will only require a low-power electrical connection for instruments and minor plant items. The Catalsys system is a complex, yet compact, chemical process that will be located on customer sites. It must be able to respond to each customer's unique demand profile for hydrogen and it needs to do this based on signals received from downstream refuelling station equipment specified and installed by others. Our products will be supervised/controlled by a central "virtual control room" to avoid the cost of manual operators at each site. Operational data will be continuously collected and analysed, enabling safe operation and predictive maintenance capabilities. We plan to begin manufacture of commercial units in Tees Valley from mid-2024\. The commercial success of our product will be dependent on a robust and highly capable autonomous control system to ensure trouble-free operation and conformance with very stringent safety requirements. Our system will be the first-of-a-kind with unique control functionality. In this project, we will work with a Tees Valley-based sub-contractor and Teesside University to undertake the development, design and testing of the control system.