In a world that seeks cleaner energy sources, the emerging hydrogen sector remains one Hindenburg disaster away from losing its social license and the current governmental support it needs for further development.
Over the past decade, significant progress has been made in developing the standards required for producing, storing, transporting and distributing. Unfortunately, gaps remain, and differences exist between what is presented as best practices across industry standards.
Through various international projects in which Kent is involved, it is apparent that hydrogen standards exhibit several deficiencies: technical gaps in operations and project distinctions; noticeable variations in key safety considerations; and inconsistent recommendations with unclear guidance on prevailing international best practices.
Kent conducted a comprehensive review of international and national standards to provide a valuable reference for hydrogen project developers. The study aimed to highlight key resources and lessons from global projects to support the development of safe hydrogen designs, focusing on operations and project distinctions associated with hydrogen production facilities.
Key findings from the study were that gaps and differences existed in the following notable areas:
Safety distances. For safety distances, it is not so much a gap in standards coverage as it is a misalignment of directions supplied by different standards. The basis, framing, scope and separation distances vary significantly across different standards.
Vent and flare design. Standards for hydrogen vent design are not scoped and not sufficient for larger production facilities. There is no standard specific to hydrogen flare design.
Fire and gas detection systems. No hydrogen-specific flame detection apparatus standard has been identified. Standards don’t specifically direct designers to conduct a fire and gas detection placement study. Various methodologies exist and a preferred method for hydrogen specifically would be of interest.
Fire protection. Protection of hydrogen inventories against fire threats in most reviewed standards recommends consideration of only a limited number of control types — separation, fire walls and water spray cooling.
The dramatic increase in the number of hydrogen standards and publications across the globe.
Detonation prevention. Detonations and the relative ease at which they can occur for air-hydrogen mixtures, compared to other flammable gases such as methane and propane, is a key safety differentiator. No standard gives direction for ignition energy limitations.
Production. As hydrogen production facilities have the potential for large scale production, some of the standards available may be limited when considering larger storage quantities and production rates. Pipeline. Existing standard requirements have limitations when directly applied to repurposed pipelines for hydrogen service.
The green hydrogen industry is still relatively young and is already progressing well with the collection and sharing of safety data. But there could be greater alignment of standards and consensus of what constitutes best practices.
As new projects and designs expand in scale, the revision and expansion of applicable standards, or the creation of new standards appropriate for larger production sites, is needed.
Hydrogen leak, gas and fire detection presents its own series of challenges. To prevent the misapplication of technologies and simplify the design process for hydrogen projects, it would be beneficial to develop new hydrogen-specific standards.
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