The major challenges of the hydrogen sector’s development in France are now widely shared, allowing France Hydrogène to develop a roadmap that includes mass hydrogen production, new uses, and revitalization of territorial ecosystems. There are many challenges to be met, and many players in the sector are mobilizing to meet them.
Beyond these key concerns, several variables remain critical to the sector’s success and viability: societal acceptance and hydrogen supply, which underpin solutions in terms of system and infrastructure safety and dependability.
The PCAET (Territorial Climate-Air-Energy Plan) workshops, for example, collect crucial information from residents in the territories. When asked about hydrogen, the general public has a good perception of this new energy vector, which is often considered “renewable.” However, one of the most common grounds of contention is the energy’s dangers, as well as the safety of new hydrogen-based technologies, particularly for mobility.
APSYS, a subsidiary of the Airbus group that specializes in risk management, has put its expertise to work in the hydrogen industry in order to address issues about the security and dependability of systems that create, store, transport, and utilize this new energy vector.
“The objective of our organization is twofold,” says Pierre Sécher, APSYS’s head of Hydrogen activities development.
– on the one hand, ensuring the hydrogen sector by providing consulting, research, knowledge, and training services in the sectors of safety, security, and cybersecurity, as well as environmental protection. The impact of CO 2 emissions or climate risk must now be recognized by firm management; consideration of the sustainability of operations no longer just involves the economic element.
– The second element of this objective is to account for these risks and optimize the performance of hydrogen systems and projects, particularly in terms of operational availability. We do this by providing system engineering services, as well as reliability and maintenance assessments, using a design-to-cost methodology (for example, how to obtain the best availability of a hydrogen production and distribution facility at a target cost or acceptable). From the system design phase onwards, we consider the human component, i.e. the man in his working environment, in addition to technical performance.”
Design for safety, security, and long-term viability
APSYS is particularly active in the aeronautics sector, its initial business, with over 800 people, and a turnover of close to 90 million euros in 2021.
Airbus’ goal of developing hydrogen aircraft by 2035 enlists the help of APSYS, the company’s center of excellence for “safety, security, and sustainability” issues. The technological problems faced by future aircraft using liquid hydrogen include rethinking the whole design and recreating the safety demonstrations that will allow authorities to award the future certificate of airworthiness. One of the qualities from aeronautics that APSYS aims to apply for many industrial projects in the hydrogen industry is doing risk and reliability analyses early in the design.
“Being part of the Airbus group helps us to facilitate knowledge transfer between industries,” says Pierre Sécher.
APSYS has been exporting its knowledge to other industries for more than 35 years
On the one hand, APSYS works in the rail, automotive, and urban transportation sectors in the subject of mobility. For example, the Airbus subsidiary contributes expertise on future autonomous train cybersecurity challenges and industrial risk analyses connected to hydrogen bus depot adaption.
APSYS also works in the sphere of industry, which employs hydrogen to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in its operations. Industrial unit modifications include the update of administrative files related to ICPE rules (Installations categorized for environmental protection) and the examination of hazard studies, particularly Seveso, and environmental impact studies. From the creation of the files through the exchanges with the administration, APSYS is there to support the operators.
Finally, APSYS works in the energy sector with producers and carriers of hydrogen in gaseous and liquefied form, whether huge industrial complexes for mass production or smaller units for territorial distribution as near to the end-user as feasible. The difficulties of hydrogen availability must be acknowledged at the supply chain level. A breach in this chain caused by a failure, an accident, or a criminal act might result in huge financial losses.
Continued expansion and resource requirements
As a result, APSYS has the ability to comprehend industrial systems and processes and to suggest technological and organizational risk control solutions that are tailored to each area of activity and its problems. The teams, which are mostly made up of engineers and were bolstered by more than 320 employees in 2021, are still growing. The sectors’ specializations include aeronautics, transportation, defense, chemical industry, and energy. APSYS is searching for risk management, sustainable development, and cybersecurity professionals.
APSYS is also working on the digitization of its companies, with a digital transformation department made up mostly of data scientists and artificial intelligence professionals. “The goal is to satisfy consumer expectations with tailored digital solutions, but also to revolutionize the business by combining the benefits of digital technology with the business skills gained over many years,” Pierre Sécher adds. In this area, APSYS has created an industrial risk management platform that can be utilized by a network of industrial facilities including hydrogen production and distribution units during the last two years.
APSYS puts its solutions closer to the demands of its clients in Toulouse, but also in Élancourt and Issy-les-Moulineaux for the Paris region, in Marseille, but also in Bordeaux, Nancy, and Brest, as well as in Germany, England, and Spain. Customers in the field of hydrogen, whether they are small businesses or huge corporations, are clustered in major industrial basins and at the center of all territorial ecosystems.
In fact, all types of clients are affected. To make hydrogen a trustworthy business, each link in the chain must be protected, and its performance must be maximized to make it a sustainable industry.
