WILMINGTON — Startup hydrogen company
Aternium Inc. could become one of the first of its kind to use artificial intelligence software in its manufacturing process thanks to a boost it received from a new partnership with industrial conglomerate Honeywell.
Aternium, launched by former Adesis executive Andrew Cottone and former Delaware Sustainable Chemistry Alliance head Dora Cheatham, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Honeywell to use its safety and control software.
The Protonium program uses machine learning to maximize the hydrogen plant’s control system and monitors to help detect hydrogen leaks 24/7. Protonium also uses predictive control algorithms in the plant design to help identify carbon intensity, possible ways to reduce power, thus reducing operation costs.
“By increasing safety and leak detection, we will be better neighbors to the communities that we build in. But it can [also] generate a lot of data that will increase our efficiency around [expenses],” Cottone said. “Hydrogen is a very competitive area, dollar-wise, and we need every advantage right now to lower our costs. That’s what this will do.”
Aternium is one of a handful of companies that is part of the Mid-Atlantic Clean Hydrogen Hub (MACH2) and one of the few start-ups in Delaware that believes that green hydrogen– or hydrogen created by splitting oxygen and hydrogen through electrolysis– will be the next renewable energy frontier.
Cheatham, who was a major architect of the
MACH2 proposal, said that the Honeywell agreement was also groundbreaking AI use in chemistry-focused companies has still been minimal up until this point.
Pharmaceutical companies are now testing platforms to help generate compounds to help speed up drug discovery, but Cheatham said that the chemistry industry moves slower.
“It’s such a mature industry, the chemical world, and it’s hard to see any system-wide change. There’s some companies that are doing it, bit by bit. Honeywell’s system is absolutely geared to hydrogen production, and what I think is they took a foundation of AI machine learning and looked to see how it could adapt to clean hydrogen,” she said.
Honeywell is a Fortune 500 company that develops and manufactures a diverse range of products and services with a primary focus on automation, energy and sustainability solutions. Aternium reportedly sought out Honeywell on the agreement as it is one of the few companies taking a long-range view on hydrogen development, based on Cottone’s knowledge at his time at Adesis.
What made Honeywell’s Protonium program attractive to Cottone was that it offered “360 degree coverage.”
“A lot of companies will tout AI machine learning, but it's just a bunch of data gathering, it's not data analysis, and there's no feedback loop. There's no continuous learning and without that, it’s just a search engine,” he said. “For our future plant to adapt to changing circumstances like humidity, temperature and electric costs, it has to anticipate the curve is coming.”
Aternium has four possible locations on the Delmarva Peninsula under consideration for its first hydrogen plant. Recently Cottone and Cheatham met with
Siemens Energy representatives and Gov. Matt Meyer to discuss the hydrogen economy's potential in Delaware.
When asked about what the Honeywell agreement symbolizes for hydrogen energy, Cottone was quick to point out that Aternium was contracted with Siemens on an energy design study, which brought another major tech company on board.
“I think it all signals that we’re combining the best of the industry with another to bring a competitive edge,” Cottone said. “When people see this [tecnology] deployed in a way we plan to, they’re really going to take notice.”
Cheatham put what the Honeywell deal meant in more succinct terms.
“We’re serious,” she said.
