A numerical study of hydrogen leakage and diffusion in a hydrogen refueling station

Studies focused on the behavior of the hydrogen leakage and diffusion are of great importance for facilitating the large scale application of the hydrogen energy. In this paper, the hydrogen leakage and diffusion in six scenarios which including comparison of different leakage position and different wind effect are analyzed numerically. The studied geometry is derived from the hydrogen refueling station in China. Due to the high pressure in hydrogen storage take, the hydrogen leakage is momentum dominated. The hydrogen volume concentration with the variation of the leakage time in different scenarios is plotted. More importantly, profiles of the flammable gas cloud at the end of the leakage are quantitatively studied. Results indicate that a more narrow space between the leakage hole and the obstacle and a smaller contact area with the obstacle make the profile of the flammable gas cloud more irregular and unpredictable. In addition, results highlight the wind effect on the hydrogen leakage and diffusion. Comparing with scenario which the wind direction consistent with the leakage direction, the opposite wind direction may result in a larger profile of the flammable gas cloud. With wind velocity increasing, the profile of the flammable gas cloud is confined in a smaller range. However, the presence of the wind facilitates the form of the recirculation zone near the obstacle. With an increase of the wind velocity, the recirculation zone moves downward along the obstacle. Thus, the hydrogen accumulation is more prominent near the obstacle.     

Numerical simulation of hydrogen leakage diffusion in seaport hydrogen refueling station

Ningbo's seaport hydrogen refueling station was used as the research object. The effects of different leakage angles, wind direction, roof shape, leakage hole diameters, temperature, and humidity on the diffusion of hydrogen leakage were studied by numerical simulation. The influence of leakage angle on hydrogen leakage is mainly reflected in the presence or absence of obstacles. The volume of the flammable hydrogen cloud was reduced by 31.16%, and the volume of the hazardous hydrogen cloud was reduced by 63.22% when there was no obstacle. The wind direction can significantly impact hydrogen leakage, with downwind and sidewind accelerating hydrogen discharge and reducing the risk. At the same time, headwind significantly increases the volume of the flammable hydrogen cloud. Compared with no wind, the volume of the flammable hydrogen cloud increased by 71.73% when headwind, but the volume of the hazardous hydrogen cloud decreased by 24.00%. If hydrogen shows signs of accumulation under the roof, the sloping roof can effectively reduce the hydrogen concentration under the roof and accelerate the hydrogen discharge. When the leakage angle θ = 90°, the sloping roof reduced the volume of the flammable hydrogen cloud by 11.74%. The leakage process was similar for different leak hole diameters in the no wind condition. The inverse of the molar fraction of hydrogen on the jet centerline was linearly related to the dimensionless axial distance of the jet in different cases. Using a least squares fit, the decay rate was obtained as 0.0039. In contrast, temperature and humidity have almost no effect on hydrogen diffusion. Hydrogen tends to accumulate on the lower surface of the roof, near the roof pillars and the hydrogen dispenser. In this paper, a set of hydrogen detector layout schemes was developed, and the alarm success rate was verified to be 83.33%.     

Study on leakage and explosion consequence for hydrogen blended natural gas in urban distribution networks

It appears to be the most economical means of transporting large quantities of hydrogen over great distances by the existing natural gas pipeline network. However, the leakage and diffusion behavior of urban hydrogen blended natural gas and the evolution law of explosion characteristics are still unclear. In this work, a Computational Fluid Dynamics three-dimensional simulation model of semi-confined space in urban streets is developed to study the diffusion process and explosion characteristics of hydrogen-blended natural gas. The influence mechanism of hydrogen blending ratio and ambient wind speed on the consequences of explosion accident is analyzed. And the dangerous area with different environmental wind effects is determined through comparative analysis based on the most dangerous scenarios. Results indicate that the traffic flow changes the diffusion path of the jet, the flammable gas cloud forms a complex profile in many obstacles, high congestion level lead to more serious explosion accidents. Wind effect keeps the flammable gas cloud near the vehicle flow, the narrow gaps between the vehicles aggravate the expansion of the flammable gas cloud. When the wind direction is consistent with the leakage direction, hydrogen blended natural gas is gathered in the recirculation zone due to the vortex effect, which results in more serious accident consequences. With the increase in hydrogen blending ratio, the higher content of H and OH in the gas mixture significantly increases the premixed burning rate, the maximum overpressure rises rapidly when the hydrogen blend level increases beyond 40%. The results can provide a basis for construction safety design, risk assessment of leakage and explosion hazards, and emergency response in hydrogen blended natural gas distribution systems.     

Study on vapour dispersion and explosion from compressed hydrogen spill: Risk assessment on a hydrogen plant

Hydrogen produced from renewable resources is one of the cleanest fuels and could be used to store intermittent solar, wind and other energies. The main concern about using hydrogen is its hazards, such as high storage pressure, wide-range flammability, low mass density, and high diffusion. This study investigated the hazards of compressed hydrogen storage by developing a CFD model to understand the gas dispersion behaviour. The model was validated using the past experimental data and showed a good agreement, which could demonstrate the diffusion characteristics and gas stratification of a buoyant gas. A case study of an accidental release of compressed hydrogen from a storage tank was investigated to evaluate the risk of a hydrogen plant. A mathematical model of the jet spill was used to account for the choking effect from a high-pressure release to ensure the input velocity in CFD simulation is suitable for modelling gas dispersion using verified spatial and temporal scales, then the simulation results were used as inputs of vapour cloud explosions (VCEs) to investigate the potential overpressure effect. It was found the CFD model could predict a more reasonable flammable gas amount in cloud than using the bulk hydrogen release rate. The safety distance based on the overpressure prediction was reduced by 35%. The method proposed in this study can provide more validity for the consequence analysis as part of risk assessment.     

A study of hydrogen leak and explosion in different regions of a hydrogen refueling station

The consequences of hydrogen leaks and explosions are predicted for the sake of the safety in hydrogen refueling stations. In this paper, the effect of wind speed on hydrogen leak and diffusion is analyzed in different regions of a hydrogen refueling station, and the influence of delayed ignition time on hydrogen explosion after an accidental hydrogen leak is further studied by numerical simulation. Results show that the effect of wind speed on the probability of hydrogen fires is distinctive in different regions of hydrogen refueling station. The size of combustible clouds in the trailer front region and the outer region increases in the low wind speed case, and the front of combustible clouds is formed in a spherical shape in the outer region, which can greatly increase the probability of hydrogen explosion. However, the high wind speed may cause an increase of the risk of accidents in the near ground region. Moreover, a non-linear correlation is shown between the rate of combustible cloud dissipation and wind speed after the hydrogen stops leaking. In addition, it is found that an increase in delayed ignition time may lead to an increase in explosion intensity, which is related with the larger high temperature area and stronger explosion overpressure. Two flame fronts and the reverse propagation of the explosion overpressure can be observed, when the delayed ignition time is larger.     

Mechanical load induced hydrogen charging of retained austenite in quenching and partitioning (Q&P) steel

This work investigates the effect of a constant load on hydrogen diffusion through a Q&P steel containing metastable retained austenite by combining electrochemical hydrogen permeation and thermal desorption spectroscopy. Material samples are placed under different external loading conditions, ranging from 50% to 125% of the yield stress. The permeation transients indicate that hydrogen diffusion is delayed under all stressed conditions, even at stresses in the elastic regime, with the delay increasing with the applied load. From thermal desorption spectroscopy performed on the same specimens after the permeation test, it appears that the samples tested under load show a high temperature peak, which is not present in the unloaded sample. Further differential scanning calorimetry analysis confirms that the high temperature peak is related to retained austenite and is a result of hydrogen effusion and hydrogen release due to transformation of the retained austenite.     

Simulation of heat and mass transfer in activated carbon tank for hydrogen storage

The charging process of hydrogen storage tank based on bed of activated carbon in a steel container at room temperature (295 K) and medium storage pressure (10 MPa) is simulated with an axisymmetric geometry model using the finite volume commercial solver Fluent. The mass flux profile at the entrance is established using user-defined functions (UDFs). The heat and mass transfer processes in the cylindrical steel tank packed with activated carbon are discussed considering the influence of viscous resistance and inertial resistance of the porous media. The velocity distribution and its effect on the temperature distribution are analyzed. The effects of the flow rate at the inlet and of the adsorption factor on the charging process are studied. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach based on finite volume simulations is used. Results show that the temperature near the bottom of the tank is higher than that at the entrance, temperature in the center of the tank is higher than that near the wall and rises somewhat faster along the axial compared to the radial direction. The highest hydrogen absolute adsorption occurs at the entrance of the tank. A good agreement is found between the simulation results and the available experimental data. The maximum magnitude of the axial velocity is much higher than that of the radial component, resulting in more heat energy transfer along the axial direction than radial direction. In addition, the pressure reaches equilibrium earlier when the mass flow is higher, and the temperature reaches a maximum value faster.     

A numerical simulation of the suppression of hydrogen jet fires on hydrogen fuel cell ships using a fine water mist

In this paper, in order to evaluate the reliability of a fine water mist for the suppression of fires on hydrogen fuel cell ships, the fire dynamics simulator (FDS) software was used to simulate the jet fire process and the action of a fine water mist on a fire caused by a hydrogen leakage in the hydrogen storage tank areas of hydrogen fuel cell ships. The fire scenario was classified into vertical or horizontal jet fires according to the location of the leakage in the hydrogen storage tank area, and the suppression effects of a fine water mist on hydrogen jet fires under a different droplet size, spray velocity, and ambient wind speed were compared and analyzed. The results indicate that a fine water mist is not effective in extinguishing hydrogen jet fires; however, by selecting suitable parameters (a spray velocity of 30 m/s and average droplet size of 30 μm), it can effectively reduce the fire field temperature of hydrogen jet fires and prevent the fire from developing further. Increasing the average droplet size of the fine water mist results in a gradual degradation of the suppression effect, while a higher spray velocity of the mist enhances the suppression effect to a certain extent. The ambient wind speed is an important factor that influences the suppression effect of a fine water mist on hydrogen jet fires, and when this speed is less than 4 m/s, a fine water mist with a higher spray velocity and smaller average droplet size is still a superior way of suppressing fires.     

Finite element modeling of hydrogen atom diffusion and distribution at corrosion defect on aged pipelines transporting hydrogen

Repurposing existing natural gas pipelines for hydrogen transport has attracted wide interests. However, the corrosion defect present on these aged pipelines can affect hydrogen (H) atom accumulation, potentially causing hydrogen embrittlement. In this work, a finite element-based model was developed by coupling solid mechanics and H atom diffusion to investigate the distribution of H atoms at a corrosion defect on a steel pipe segment under applied longitudinal tensile strains. The applied strain causes local stress (both Mises stress and hydrostatic stress) and strain concentrations at the corrosion defect, affecting the H atom diffusion and distribution. In the absence of the tensile strain, the H atoms, once entering the interior of pipe, diffuse uniformly into the pipe body along the radial direction driven by a concentration gradient. When a strain is applied on the pipe, the H atom diffusion is driven by hydrostatic stress. The maximum H atom concentration exceeds the initial concentration of H atoms entering the steel pipe, indicating the H atom accumulation at the corrosion defect. The applied tensile strain also affects the location where the H atoms accumulate. For both internal and external corrosion defects, more H atoms will be concentrated at the defect center when the defect length reduces and the depth increases.     

Safety analysis of leakage in a nuclear hydrogen production system

Due to its unique advantages, such as clean and pollution-free, hydrogen energy has gradually improved its energy transition position. Constructing nuclear hydrogen production systems is a necessary means to achieve large-scale hydrogen production, and the study of hydrogen leakage and diffusion behavior is critical to commercializing hydrogen production systems. In engineering practice, the distance between the hydrogen storage device and the nuclear power plant is an important indicator to measure the safety of nuclear hydrogen production. To study the influence of gas storage tank's own conditions and external environmental conditions on leakage diffusion, influencing factors such as wind speed, leakage direction, leakage diameter, leakage height, and leakage angle are discussed in the present study. By calculating severe working conditions combined with the above multiple factors, the longest distance of hydrogen diffusion is determined. Finally, peak overpressure impact generated by hydrogen explosion was evaluated, and the minimum separation distance required to avoid safety risks was predicted. The results demonstrate that when the wind direction is consistent with the leakage direction, and the leakage angle is 0°, the higher the wind speed, the larger the leakage diameter and the lower the leakage height, resulting in a longer diffusion distance. Under more extreme and severe working conditions, the diffusion distance of combustible hydrogen cloud can reach as far as 237 m. Once hydrogen diffusion explodes, the minimum separation distance required is about 338 m. This research provides an effective method for safety risk assessment of a nuclear hydrogen production system.     

Experimental studies on wind influence on hydrogen release from low pressure pipelines

At the DIMNP (Department of Mechanical, Nuclear and Production Engineering) laboratories of University of Pisa (Italy) a pilot plant called HPBT (Hydrogen Pipe Break Test) was built in cooperation with the Italian Fire Brigade Department. The apparatus consists of a 12 m³ tank connected with a 50 m long pipe. At the far end of the pipeline a couple of flanges have been used to house a disc with a hole of the defined diameter. The plant has been used to carry out experiments of hydrogen release. During the experimental activity, data have been acquired about the gas concentration and the length of release as function of internal pressure and release hole diameter. The information obtained by the experimental activity will be the basis for the development of a new specific normative framework arranged to prevent fire and applied to hydrogen. This study is focused on hydrogen concentration as function of wind velocity and direction. Experimental data have been compared with theoretical and computer models (such as CFD simulations).     

Evaluation on the harm effects of accidental releases from cryo-compressed hydrogen tank for fuel cell cars

Cryogenic compressed hydrogen tank may open new possibilities for onboard storage due to its high energy density and acceptable thermal endurance. As promising hydrogen storage for commercial use, its hazards need comprehensive investigation. This paper studies the consequences of accidental hydrogen releases from cryo-compressed storage and evaluates the cold effects, thermal effects, and overpressure and missile effects. Two typical storage conditions for a fuel cell car are considered, including driving condition and quasi-venting condition after a long-term of parking. Results show that flash fire and vapor cloud explosion can be considered as the leading consequences. Without ignition, catastrophic rupture may be more dangerous than leakages but with ignition the results may vary for different release diameters. For leakages, quasi-venting condition may be more dangerous than driving condition. However, for catastrophic rupture, the results may be not uniformed but depend on whether and when the hydrogen is ignited. Moreover, the influences of wind velocity and atmospheric pressure are also investigated.     

An investigation of the effect of hydrogen on ductile fracture using a unit cell model

The effect of hydrogen on the ductility of metals is studied by incorporating the hydrogen diffusion process and the hydrogen enhanced localized plasticity (HELP) into a finite element program. A series of unit cell analyses are conducted under various stress states and the loading speed resulting in a steady state hydrogen distribution is determined. The evolution of the local stress and deformation states results in hydrogen redistribution in the material, which in turn changes the material's flow property due to the HELP effect. It is found that localized plastic deformation plays a major role in increasing the hydrogen concentration due to the newly generated trapping sites. The HELP effect promotes material failure by accelerating void growth, which is affected by the macroscopic stress state subjected by the material unit characterized by the stress triaxiality and the Lode parameter. For a constant Lode parameter, the effect of HELP on void growth and failure strain reduction increases with the stress triaxiality. For a constant stress triaxiality, the effect of HELP is highest when the Lode parameter is near 0. As the Lode parameter increases towards 1 or decreases towards −1, the HELP effect gradually diminishes.     

Study of heat and mass transfer in MmNi4.6Al0.4 during desorption of hydrogen

In this paper, a numerical investigation of two-dimensional coupled heat and mass transfer during desorption of hydrogen in a cylindrical metal hydride reactor containing MmNi_6.4Al_0.4 is presented. By considering the variation in heat transfer fluid temperature along the axial direction (variable wall temperature boundary condition), the changes in hydride bed temperature at different axial locations are presented. The effect of variable wall temperature boundary condition on hydrogen desorption rate for different hot fluid temperatures and hydride bed thicknesses is investigated. The rate of hydrogen desorption at different hot fluid temperatures showed good agreement with the experimental data reported in the literature. As the desorption progresses, the change in heat transfer fluid temperature along the axial direction is found to decrease with time and becomes unchanged at the end of the process. The effect of variable wall temperature boundary condition on desorption time is found to be significant for the hydride bed thicknesses of about 7.5 mm and more. For a given bed thickness of 17.5 mm, the maximum difference in desorption time between variable wall and constant wall temperature convective boundary conditions is about 375 s at 303 K.     

Multi-scale model based design of membrane reactor/separator processes for intensified hydrogen production through the water gas shift reaction

This work aims to first quantify the impact of various diffusion models (Maxwell-Stefan, Wilke, Dusty-Gas) on the predictions of a multi-scale membrane reactor/separator mathematical model, and to then demonstrate this model's use for the design and process intensification of membrane reactor/separator systems for hydrogen production. This multi-scale model captures velocity, temperature and species' concentration profiles along the catalyst pellet's radial direction, and along the reactor's axial direction, by solving the momentum, energy, and species transport equations, accounting for convection, conduction, reaction, and diffusion mechanisms. In the first part of work, the effect of pellet-scale design parameters (mean pore diameter, volumetric porosity, tortuosity factor, etc.) and various species' flux models on the model predictions is studied. In the second part, the study focuses on the comparison, in terms of their process intensification characteristics, of various hydrogen production processes. These include a conventional high-temperature shift reactor (HTSR)/low-temperature shift reactor (LTSR) sequence, a novel HTSR/membrane separator (MS)/LTSR/MS sequence, and a process that involves low-temperature shift membrane reactors-LTSMR in a series.     

Modeling of hydrogen dispersion from hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in an underground parking garage

Hydrogen is a promising energy carrier that will become competitive in the near future. The present study modeled hydrogen leaks and diffusion in an actual size underground parking garage with the numerical model validated by scale experimental data. The results show that the hydrogen concentration distributions are not uniform in the gas mixture layer along the ceiling and the initial front velocity of the gas mixture layer decays with horizontal distance from the leaking car. The vertical filling front velocity for times after 600 s remain constant in the near field but increases linearly with distance in the far field. The corner walls did not significantly affect the far-field concentration distributions and the ventilation layout with vents in the garage corners provided better hydrogen removal. These results can be used to predict the hydrogen concentration buildup in large confined spaces and to help design underground parking garage ventilation systems.     

Damage associated with interactions between microstructural characteristics and hydrogen/methane gas mixtures of pipeline steels

There is no common standard for blended hydrogen use in the natural gas grid; hydrogen content is generally based on delivery systems and end-use applications. The need for a quantitative evaluation of hydrogen-natural gas mixtures related to the mechanical performance of materials is becoming increasingly evident to obtain long lifetime, safe, and reliable pipeline structures. This study attempts to provide experimental data on the effect of H₂ concentration in a methane/hydrogen (CH₄/H₂) gas mixture used in hydrogen transportation. The mechanical performance under various blended hydrogen concentrations was compared for three pipeline steels, API X42, X65, and X70. X65 exhibited the highest risk of hydrogen-assisted crack initiation in the CH₄/H₂ gas mixture in which brittle fractures were observed even at 1% H₂. The X42 and X70 samples exhibited a significant change in their fracture mechanism in a 30% H₂ gas mixture condition; however, their ductility remained unchanged. There was an insignificant difference in the hydrogen embrittlement indices of the three steels under 10 MPa of hydrogen gas. The coexistence of delamination along with the ferrite/pearlite interface, heterogeneous deformation in the radial direction, and abundance of nonmetallic MnS inclusions in the X65 sample may induce a high stress triaxiality at the gauge length at the beginning of the slow strain rate tensile process, thereby facilitating efficient hydrogen diffusion.     

The simulation and analysis of leakage and explosion at a renewable hydrogen refuelling station

The number of hydrogen refuelling stations (HRSs) is steadily growing worldwide. In China, the first renewable hydrogen refuelling station has been built in Dalian for nearly 3 years. FLACS software based on computational fluid dynamics approach is used in this paper for simulation and analysis on the leakage and explosion of hydrogen storage system in this renewable hydrogen refuelling station. The effects of wind speed, leakage direction and wind direction on the consequences of the accident are analyzed. The harmful area, lethal area, the farthest harmful distance and the longest lethal distance in explosion accident of different accident scenarios are calculated. Harmful areas after explosion of different equipments in hydrogen storage system are compared. The results show that leakage accident of the 90 MPa hydrogen storage tank cause the greatest harm in hydrogen explosion. The farthest harmful distance caused by explosion is 35.7 m and the farthest lethal distance is 18.8 m in case of the same direction of wind and leakage. Moreover, it is recommended that the hydrogen tube trailer should not be parked in the hydrogen refuelling station when the amount of hydrogen is sufficient.     

Influence of substitutional impurities on hydrogen diffusion in B2-TiFe alloy

The hydrogen diffusion pathways were studied in B2-TiFe alloy within density functional theory (DFT) using the plane-wave pseudo-potential method. Our results confirm that the hydrogen diffusion between octahedral interstices where it is surrounded by two Fe and four Ti atoms along [10-1] direction is most preferential in TiFe bulk. The estimated hydrogen diffusion barrier of 0.62 eV differs insignificantly from values of barriers in pure Ti. The influence of substitutional transition and simple metal impurities on the energy barriers is discussed. It was found that impurities such as V, Cr, Mn decrease the hydrogen diffusion barriers along both considered pathways whereas Pd impurity decreases considerably the barrier along [00-1] direction that leads to the change of the diffusion mechanism. In general, the competition of structural and electronic factors strongly influences the hydrogen diffusion barriers. The present results provide a deep understanding of H behavior in TiFe bulk.     

Effect of hydrogen percentage and air jet Reynolds number on fuel lean flame stability of LPG-fired inverse diffusion flame with hydrogen enrichment

The flame type studied in this paper is a circumferential-fuel – jet inverse diffusion flame, and the fuel is liquefied petroleum gas enriched with hydrogen gas. Fuel lean flame stability limit regarding to the volumetric percentage of hydrogen and the air jet Reynolds number was investigated. There were three flame stable-related limits examined: local extinction limit, restore limit, and complete extinction limit. Global Energy Consumption Rate of fuel, fuel jet velocity, and overall equivalence ratio of the air/fuel mixture at the three stable-related limits were presented. Experimental results indicate that with hydrogen addition, the inverse diffusion flame can sustain burning with a lower global energy than without it. The most significant stabilization effect was obtained with 30% hydrogen addition for complete extinction limit and 30%–90% for local extinction limit. The corresponding fuel jet velocity at complete extinction limit also decreases with hydrogen addition. However, fuel jet velocities at local extinction limit and restore limit increase significantly, when hydrogen percentage is larger than 70%. Air jet Reynolds number does not show notable influence on Global Energy Consumption Rate or fuel jet velocity at the three stability limits. In addition, overall equivalence ratio, which is an important parameter of inverse diffusion flame combustion dropping dramatically with air jet Reynolds number when it is less than 2000.