Breaking Down the Commercialization Barriers for Expanding the Use of H2

by Douglas M. Rode, Managing Director, and William J. Satterfield, Senior Engineer, Capital Asset Management, LLC

The principal advantages of using hydrogen are that it is plentiful, environmentally clean, and is one of the most energy-efficient fuels available. These are powerful political and commercial drivers. To realize these advantages, more than 50 million pounds of hydrogen are used daily in production plants in the U.S. per a Standard & Poor’s 1995 industry survey. The creative applications for hydrogen are expanding to include such uses as hydrogen-powered vehicles, solid waste processing facilities, and alternative electric energy production.

Whenever “new” technologies or innovative applications of technology are proposed, there are commercialization barriers until there are several successful operations. The commercialization barriers represent caution flags that need to be addressed before financial institutions will invest and insurance companies will insure. Generally, some of the technology’s perceived risk issues and their related questions concern:

Specifically, hydrogen needs to be stored, handled, and used in a manner to ensure that life and health are not jeopardized and risk of property damage is minimized. Insurability concerns focus on:

These concerns are pragmatic and quantifiable. Per data from NASA’s Safety Standard for Hydrogen and Hydrogen Systems (NSS1740), the following table identifies the categories of accidents and their frequency of occurrence.

Categories No. %
Undetected Leaks 32 22
H2 / O2 Off-Gassing Explosions 25 17
Piping & Pressure Vessel Ruptures 21 14
Inadequate Inert Gas Purging 12 8
Vent & Exhaust System Incidents 10 7
H2 / Chlorine Incidents 10 7
Others 35 25
Totals
 145 100

It is therefore prudent to manage the risks from hydrogen through prevention, detection, and minimization of potential consequences. These three goals are achievable through the use of state-of-the-art hydrogen sensors. These innovative sensors provide for:

There is encouraging news about the availability of codes and standards governing the use of hydrogen. Efforts are underway to develop an ISO standard for hydrogen. Because of the time to fully implement ISO standards, the National Hydrogen Association (NHA) is championing the development of a set of standards or guidelines, which could serve as the basis for the ISO Standard. There are plans underway to modify the NFPA 850, 50A, and 50B Standards to address specific hydrogen-related issues. The DOE is funding the development of a Hydrogen Safety Manual with the collective inputs from many diverse parties that have a vested interest in personnel safety and system integrity.

In addition, due to their extensive use of hydrogen, NASA has published an excellent Safety Standard for Hydrogen and Hydrogen Systems. This safety standard establishes a uniform agency process for hydrogen system design, materials selection, operation, storage, and transportation. It is important to note, however, that the document clearly states that the Standard does not preclude the exercise of sound engineering judgment.

The basis for breaking down commercialization barriers is demonstrating that sound engineering judgment has been used. This burden of proof is no different with any new technology or innovative application of existing technology. Risk exposures need to be quantified. Specifically, an accepted methodology for defining risk exposures is desirable as well as effective risk mitigation for the support of integrated hydrogen systems.

The risk quantification process needs to account for the total cost of risks that identifies all of the potential consequences from incidents. Since risk is the product of consequences and frequency, a probabilistic appraisal of the potential frequency of accidents is also needed. With the risk quantified, risk mitigation efforts can be clearly identified.

The use of monitoring and detection systems is a major requirement to reduce risk exposures. Verification of compliance with codes and guidelines as they become available is a noteworthy design sanity check. Operator awareness and maintenance training are of paramount importance to prevent an accident from occurring or to minimize its consequences due to appropriate intervention. Signal confidence and response timeliness are critical to this engineering effort.

Finally, a firm commitment for ongoing risk management needs to be thoroughly demonstrated. With personnel safety and system integrity improvements being constantly developed, and with community acceptance of safety technology, all users must prudently invest in these improvements in order to remain competitive by maximizing the sustainability of their performance.

If a hydrogen project has a solid technical foundation and the financial pro formas justify the funding because of their potential return on investment, then financial and insurance barriers will be overcome. The expanding use of hydrogen will become a reality out of market-driven necessity.

[For further information, contact Douglas Rode, P.E., at Capital Asset Management, LLC, 171 Market Square, Suite 109, Newington, CT 06111, U.S.A. Phone: +1.860.594.7183. Fax: +1.860.594.7184. eMail: cam@camllc.com.]

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