Siemens offers GenAI tools for planning hydrogen plants

Siemens has announced software tools based on generative AI for companies in the hydrogen industry. The new solutions are intended to help simplify the design, engineering and automation of hydrogen production plants, enabling a quicker scale-up of hydrogen production.

The Hydrogen Plant Configurator is an intelligent chatbot based on generative artificial intelligence that Siemens says enables users to create plant designs for hydrogen production. In an iterative process, the configurator is fed with the desired design characteristics of a production plant. The AI then creates seamless block flow diagrams up to precise layouts of the system units and connections. In addition, the AI can predict plant-specific key figures such as possible power consumption, heat generation and a comprehensive list of the most important components. The data generated in this way represents the basic concept of a plant. It can then be transferred to engineering and simulation software such as Siemens’ Comos and gProms, for example, to automatically create the piping and instrumentation diagrams.

“Generative artificial intelligence can provide support in the crucial phases of hydrogen production to save considerable time and costs,” said Axel Lorenz, CEO Process Automation at Siemens. “With the Hydrogen Plant Configurator, it is easier to plan and operate a more sustainable hydrogen plant and thus lay the foundation for efficient production.”

Siemens is also launching an AI-based tool for the project planning phase of hydrogen plants. The Comos AI engineering assistant can create equipment specifications and diagrams based on natural language descriptions and automatically completes or corrects models and drawings. The assistant can also provide support during cross-domain phases in engineering or cross-product workflows by converting models, drawings and information structures, for example for simulation software such as Simit from Siemens. In addition, users can use Comos AI to retrieve information from engineering-relevant products — via their own prompt or suggested by the assistant. In this way, the assistant provides answers to documentation, specifications or technical details. By entering images, scans or PDFs, it can also proactively deliver relevant resources and transform them into precise diagrams and models.

To simplify the automation of processes in hydrogen plants, Siemens is launching a new module for the Simatic PCS neo distributed control system: SFC Generation. The module is integrated into the process control system and can create so-called sequential function charts (SFCs) using generative artificial intelligence. These charts provide a visual representation of process logic and allow users to easily manage complex workflows. This is possible based on specific prompts or by copying a prose process description into the module’s chat window.

The Hydrogen Plant Configurator will be available on the Siemens Xcelerator Marketplace from the end of calendar year 2024, while Comos AI and SFC Generation are expected to be available from the beginning of 2025.

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