How our graduates are helping clients optimize their hydrogen production

We sat down with graduate engineers Ross Cooper and Rachel Black to discuss leading projects, wrestling Python, and developing a new hydrogen and ammonia production optimization tool.

Hello to both of you and thanks for agreeing to speak to us today. I thought maybe we could get started with some introductions?

Rachel: “I’m Rachel Black, and I joined AtkinsRéalis as a graduate process engineer in the Nuclear and Power business about two and a half years ago. Since then, I’ve worked on a range of projects across nuclear and Net Zero and I started on this project about six months ago.”

Ross: “I’m Ross Cooper, and I’ve been at AtkinsRéalis for about three years now. I also started as a graduate process engineer, primarily on projects involving hydrogen and its derivatives.”

So, tell us about this tool you’ve developed.

Ross: “When I first started at AtkinsRéalis, I was assigned to a green hydrogen project, where we were asked to help the client assess the potential for hydrogen and derivative production from their renewable resources. In this project we evaluated how much hydrogen and/or ammonia could be produced at a certain cost, and therefore how much they would be able to sell, how much storage and space they would need, machinery requirements etc. The problem was that it took a long time to find the optimal plant configuration, and as many kinds of renewable energy don’t provide a consistent power output, you needed to calculate quite a complex range of variables.

Ross: “We decided we needed to develop a tool that would let us quickly calculate and optimize hydrogen and ammonia production on an hourly basis considering varying renewable power profiles, so that the client could have all the data they need to make their business case and begin detailed design.”

You were involved from the beginning?

Ross: “Yes. I worked with experts in the business to develop the first version of the tool in Excel and led the project through its first project deployments. Rachel then joined at the end of last year.”

Rachel: “Initially when I joined, Ross had sole ownership of the tool. We were working on an offshore wind project, and after Ross trained me up a bit in how to use the tool, I was able to take ownership for the next stage of development, which was developing the tool so it could be more widely deployed. This was pretty complex, as we had to do quite a lot of quality assurance to ensure our results would be relevant, reproducible, and accurate to a range of different projects.”

Rachel: “Once we’d deployed on a few projects, we were then able to start gathering feedback from the technical experts who used the tool, which helped us refine it and make the process more user-friendly. After all, we want more people than just Ross and I to know how to use it! We began this by developing a methodology document that could be supplied alongside the program – so that anyone assigned to the project could start using the tool without necessarily having seen it before. And now we are working on turning the tool from an Excel-based program to a Python-based optimizer.”

I’m going to assume you mean the programming language, and not that we are building tools from snakes…

Rachel: “Yes so now we have developed the tool, transferring it to Python gives us an opportunity to optimize and really speed up the processes. It should also really reduce the amount of time we have to spend checking the results and make it far more robust, durable and user-friendly.”

Ross: “Python also allows us to run more sensitivities for clients in less time, so they can build better business cases.”

Rachel: “And it also lets us make modifications more simply, so if the client needs a graph or dashboard to display a certain result or variable, this can be easily added on.”

That sounds incredibly valuable. Have you got any more ambitions for the future of the tool?

Ross: “Once we have completed the transfer to Python, we plan to add a process simulation package. This will allow the tool to produce more detailed specifications, such as equipment sizing and mass and energy balances. This information can then inform costing and speed up the next stages of design.”

Well, I’m sold – have you enjoyed working on this project?

Rachel: “It’s been great to have this responsibility so early in our careers and work with senior people in the business to develop the tool. When I was first assigned to the project, I didn’t know anything about electrolyzer plants or ammonia production. So, I’ve learnt an enormous amount about these technologies as well as developing a new skills and getting a lot of exposure to the innovation process and how it works – from securing funding and presenting business cases to senior leadership to working with software specialists. It’s just been an incredible experience.

Ross: “I would 100% second that. We really got to experience a certain amount of autonomy putting this model together, but we also had this great resource of technical expertise from the subject matter experts in the business who were able to support. And it’s been great experience of responsibilities like budget management, presenting to clients and at conferences, and teaching other people to use the tool. It’s been a really valuable experience.

Rachel: “Ross and I presented at the All-Energy Conference in Glasgow earlier this year which was fantastic. We were representing the business and talking to industry experts about this tool that we had developed ourselves, and it’s just not anything I ever thought I’d be doing while still on the graduate program.

It sounds like you’ve had a really rewarding experience! Thank you so much for your time, and good luck with the rest of the project.

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