At Hazardex Live 2024, Gexcon's Energy Transition Lead Karina Almeida will present a number of control and mitigation strategies within the hydrogen industry, which have been quantified and illustrated with the use of CFD modelling.
Hydrogen is expected to play a big role in the transition towards a more sustainable energy system, with numerous projects underway along the entire value chain from production through storage and distribution to a wide variety of end-user applications. Although the use of hydrogen in industry is not new, the energy transition is leading to many novel applications. Moreover, hydrogen is being put in close proximity to the general public, who lack the safety awareness and specialist training.
Safety is of paramount importance if hydrogen is to fulfil its promise in the energy transition; a serious accident would result in the loss of public support and license to operate. It could also seriously delay the introduction of new technologies. Therefore, every player in the hydrogen value chain needs to understand the hazards associated with the introduction of hydrogen, carefully evaluate the risks and put in place sufficient mitigation measures to reduces these risks to tolerable levels. However, time is of the essence when developing hydrogen projects, thus incorporating effective mitigation strategies and inherent safety concepts at the start of the project can avoid surprises and costly re-designs later on.
This paper will present a number of control and mitigation strategies based on Gexcon’s experience within the hydrogen industry, which have been quantified and illustrated with the use of CFD modelling. For example, early isolation is key to limit the amount of hydrogen released, which could potentially lead to a vapour cloud explosion in case of delayed ignition. We will also present our insights regarding ventilation requirements in enclosures containing equipment handling high pressure hydrogen and how it relates to hazardous area classification.
The objective is to help process designers and project integrators understand the particular hazards of hydrogen and how these can be mitigated using inherently safer design principles, to ensure projects can be designed and operated safely.
About the author: Karina Almeida has 20 years professional experience in the energy industry, the last 10 years in process safety. She holds a PhD in Chemistry which has enabled her to apply knowledge to the development of energy-efficient processes including the extraction of second-generation biofuels from marine algae. Her current role encompasses not only hydrogen safety, but also CCS, ammonia, biofuels and other technologies related to alternative energy.
