ABB and PERIC, China’s leading manufacturer of hydrogen electrolyzers, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to accelerate the widespread adoption of hydrogen as an energy source. Both companies will explore how the integration of ABB’s automation, electrification and digital solutions with PERIC’s electrolyzers can help reduce hydrogen generation costs in the future.

PERIC Hydrogen Technologies Co., Ltd., a company headquartered in China with more than 60 years of history in supplying products and technologies for hydrogen generation, looks to enhance its capabilities to manufacture highly efficient electrolyzers.

Demand for hydrogen, which has grown more than threefold since 1975, continues to rise. According to the International Energy Agency, clean hydrogen is currently enjoying unprecedented momentum, with the number of policies and projects around the world expanding rapidly. Scaling up technologies and bringing down costs of production is vital to enable hydrogen to become used widely.

The collaboration between ABB and PERIC will comprise ongoing consultation relating to the development of joint solutions and/or the integration of complementary technologies that will optimize efficient green hydrogen generation. The aim is for a detailed action plan and specific agreement to be defined within three months following the signature of the MoU.

PERIC will integrate an extensive scope of ABB’s automation, electrification and digital solutions into the project and bring ABB in on the initiatives where specific ABB technology can be included, such as rectifiers, distributed control systems, energy management, advanced analytics, instrumentation and telecommunication.

It is critical for hydrogen to be generated as efficiently as possible. ABB’s energy management technologies, combined with their automation, electrification and digitalization solutions, will help us find the best way to boost the efficiency of our own operations, which, in turn, will help minimize the cost of hydrogen production.

—Zhang Yuguang, General manager, PERIC

ABB’s integrated approach will play a key role in helping PERIC optimize energy use throughout the plant, thus reducing costs for electrolyzer production. Utilizing digital solutions from ABB, all data from the plant’s equipment will be integrated into a single automation system that will be continuously analyzed to maintain continuous and efficient operation.

ABB is collaborating with customers and partners to develop and integrate technology that will make green hydrogen an accessible, affordable component of the world’s low carbon energy mix.

In Italy, ABB is partnering with Swiss utility company Axpo to develop modular green hydrogen plants that aim to create an optimum operating model to produce affordable, green hydrogen. In France, ABB is supplying its Freelance distributed control system and ABB Ability Manufacturing Operations Management digital platform to the first production site for Lhyfe, a producer and supplier of 100 percent green hydrogen.

ABB is also working with Hydrogen Optimized, a sustainable energy conversion company in Canada, to jointly explore the development of large-scale green hydrogen production systems connected to the electrical grid to offer a clean, sustainable, and affordable energy carrier.

PERIC, a global company headquartered in China, has, to date, manufactured over 1,300 sets of hydrogen production systems with the highest reliability and advanced technology, supplied to both domestic and international customers. The total manufacturing base for hydrogen electrolysis systems is approximately 21,500 square meters, with annual production reaching 350 sets of hydrogen generation systems.