Self-ignition and flame propagation of high-pressure hydrogen jet during sudden discharge from a pipe

Hydrogen is expected to serve as a clean energy carrier. However, since there are serious ignition hazards associated with its use, it is necessary to collect data on safety in a range of possible accident scenarios so as to assess hazards and develop mitigation measures. When high-pressure hydrogen is suddenly released into the air, a shock wave is produced, which compresses the air and mixes it with hydrogen at the contact surface. This leads to an increase in the temperature of the hydrogen–air mixture, thereby increasing the possibility of ignition. We investigated the phenomena of ignition and flame propagation during the release of high-pressure hydrogen. When a hydrogen jet flame is produced by self-ignition, the flame is held at the pipe outlet and a hydrogen jet flame is produced. From the experiment using the measurement pipe, the presence of a flame in the pipe is confirmed; further, when the burst pressure increased, the flame may be detected at a position near the diaphragm. At the pipe outlet, the flame is not lifted and self-ignition is initiated at the outer edge of the jet.     

Experimental study of ignited unsteady hydrogen releases from a high pressure reservoir

In order to simulate an accidental hydrogen release from the high pressure pipe system of a hydrogen facility a systematic study on the nature of transient hydrogen jets into air and their combustion behavior was performed at the KIT hydrogen test site HYKA. Horizontal unsteady hydrogen jets from a reservoir of 0.37 dm³ with initial pressures of up to 200 bar have been investigated. The hydrogen jets released via round nozzles 3, 4, and 10 mm were ignited with different ignition times and positions. The experiments provide new experimental data on pressure loads and heat releases resulting from the deflagration of hydrogen–air clouds formed by unsteady turbulent hydrogen jets released into a free environment. It is shown that the maximum pressure loads occur for ignition in a narrow position and time window. The possible hazard potential arising from an ignited free transient hydrogen jet is described.     

Research progress on the self-ignition of high-pressure hydrogen discharge: A review

As one of the most promising fossil energy substitutes, hydrogen energy is receiving increasing attention, and it has been greatly developed in recent years. However, hydrogen safety issues limit the large-scale application of hydrogen energy. Since 1922, the issue of self-ignition of high-pressure hydrogen discharge has gradually become the focus of attention of scholars in the field of hydrogen energy. Particularly fruitful research results have been obtained in the past 20 years, showing that the minimum discharge pressure of hydrogen self-ignition is approximately 2 MPa. In particular, the discharge tube shape and bursting disc rupture have a significant effect on the characteristics of hydrogen self-ignition. Moreover, the study of the hydrogen self-ignition mechanism under special working conditions has been extended by shock-induced ignition theory. Initial conditions mainly affect the critical pressure of hydrogen self-ignition by changing the formation, development and propagation of shock waves. Finally, the deficiencies and future research trends in research methods, self-ignition characteristics, and dynamic mechanisms are analysed.     

Control of the ignition possibility of hydrogen by electrostatic discharge at a ventilation duct outlet

To control the ignition possibility of hydrogen by electrostatic discharge at a ventilation duct outlet, we investigated the effect of the outlet shape. Four types of outlets were designed; outlet A (6.35 mm pipe), outlet B (12.7 mm pipe), outlet C (25.4 mm pipe) and a tapered porous outlet (called TP outlet in this paper). Iron (III) oxide particles were used as the model dust.     

Experimental study on spontaneous ignition and flame propagation of high-pressure hydrogen release through tubes

An experimental study was conducted to research the mechanism of spontaneous ignition induced by high-pressure hydrogen release through tubes with a diameter of 10 mm and varying lengths from 0.3 to 3 m. The pressure and light signals inside the tube were collected. The propagation of shock wave inside and outside the tube was also systematically investigated. The development process of the jet flame in the atmosphere was completely recorded, and the multiple Mach disks at the tube exit were observed by using a high-speed camera. The results show that the minimum release pressure, at which the jet flame is formed, is found to be 3.87 MPa with the tube length of 1.7 m. When the tube length was longer than 1.7 m, the critical pressure for forming jet flame increased rapidly. The velocity attenuation of the shock wave is mainly affected by the burst pressure but not sensitive to the tube length, and the flame propagates in the tube at a slower velocity than the shock wave. The compression of the hydrogen-air mixture by the Mach disk causes it to burn more violently after passing through the Mach disk. It is confirmed that the flame at the tube exit is lifted in the atmosphere, then a jet flame initiates behind the second Mach disk.     

Production of hydrogen from hydrogen sulfide assisted by dielectric barrier discharge

Hydrogen production by non-thermal plasma (NTP) assisted direct decomposition of hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) was carried out in a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) reactor with stainless steel inner electrode and copper wire as the outer electrode. The specific advantage of the present process is the direct decomposition of H₂S in to H₂ and S and the novelty of the present study is the in-situ removal of sulfur that was achieved by operating DBD plasma reactor at ∼430 K. Optimization of various parameters like the gas residence time in the discharge, frequency, initial concentration of H₂S and temperature was done to achieve hydrogen production in an economically feasible manner. The typical results indicated that NTP is effective in dissociating H₂S into hydrogen and sulfur and it has been observed that by optimizing various parameters, it is possible to achieve H₂ production at 300 kJ/mol H₂ that corresponds to ∼3.1 eV/H₂, which is less than the energy demand during the steam methane reforming (354 kJ/mol H₂ or ∼3.7 eV/H₂).     

Experiment study on the pressure and flame characteristics induced by high-pressure hydrogen spontaneous ignition

A series of experiments were conducted to study the pressure and combustion characteristics of the high-pressure hydrogen during the occurrence of spontaneous ignition and the conversion from spontaneous ignition to a jet fire and explosion. Different initial conditions including release pressure (4–10 MPa), tube diameter (10/15 mm), and tube length (0.3/0.7/1.2/1.7/2.2/3 m) were tested. The variation of the pressure and flame signal inside and outside of the tube and the development of the jet flame were recorded. The experimental results revealed that the minimum ignition pressure required for self-ignition of hydrogen at different tube diameters decreased first and then increased with the extension of tubes. The minimum ignition pressure for tubes diameters of 10 mm and 15 mm is no more than 4 MPa and the length of the tubes is L = 1.7 m. The minimum release pressure required for spontaneous ignition of a tube D = 15 mm is always lower than that of a tube D = 10 mm at the same tube length. When the spontaneous ignition occurred, it did not absolutely trigger the jet fire. The transition from spontaneous ignition to a jet fire must go through the specific stages.     

Numerical study of spontaneous ignition of pressurized hydrogen released by the failure of a rupture disk into a tube

Recent experimental observations have shown that pressurized hydrogen may be spontaneously ignited in downstream tubes of sufficient length when it is released into the air due to the rapid failure of a pressure boundary. The mixing between hydrogen and shocked air within the downstream tubes is speculated to be a key process for the occurrence of spontaneous ignition of hydrogen. A direct numerical simulation has been conducted to analyze the processes of mixing and of spontaneous ignition of hydrogen within a tube after the rupture of a disk at a bursting pressure of 86.1 atm. A realistic assumption of the geometry of the pressure boundary at the moment of its failure is used for the initial condition of the numerical simulation to properly account for its effect on the mixing process. The present simulation results show that the mixing of shocked air and expanding hydrogen is enhanced by the transient multi-dimensional shock initiated by the failure of a rupture disk and by the following interactions during the flow development through the tube, thus causing spontaneous ignition of hydrogen within the tube.     

Particulate characteristics of laser ignited hydrogen enriched compressed natural gas engine

Laser ignition (LI) is emerging as a strong technology to control the oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emissions from spark ignition (SI) engines without the need for any significant exhaust gas after-treatment and is an appropriate technology for meeting future emission norms in the automotive sector. In this study, particulate characteristics of LI engine fuelled with different compressed natural gas (CNG) and hydrogen mixtures [100% CNG, 10HCNG (10% v/v hydrogen with 90% v/v CNG), 30HCNG (30% v/v hydrogen with 70% v/v CNG), 50HCNG (50% v/v hydrogen with 50% v/v CNG) and 100% hydrogen] were investigated. Experiments were performed in a suitably modified single cylinder engine, which operated in LI mode at constant engine speed (1500 rpm) at five different engine loads (5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 Nm). Particulate characteristics were determined using an engine exhaust particle sizer (EEPS). Results showed that particle number concentration increased with increasing engine load. Number-size, surface area-size and mass-size distributions of particulates reflected that addition of hydrogen in the CNG improved particulate emission characteristics especially in nucleation mode particle (NMP) size range (10 nm < Dp < 50 nm). Among the test fuels, hydrogen-fuelled engine emitted the lowest number of particles. It was observed that the difference between particulate characteristics emitted by different test fuels reduced at higher engine loads. Significant contribution of lubricating oil in particulate emissions from both hydrogen as well as HCNG fuelled LI engine was an important finding of this study. Dominant contribution of larger particles (Dp > 50 nm) in total particle mass (TPM) was an important observation of this study. The qualitative correlation between total particle number (TPN) and TPM indicated that suitable fuel composition at different engine loads yielded cleaner exhaust from the LI engine. Overall, this study demonstrated that addition of hydrogen in CNG is advantageous from particulate reduction point of view, however, optimum fuel composition should be adjusted according to engine operating condition in order to reduce particulate emissions.     

Experimental study of spontaneous ignition induced by sudden hydrogen release through tubes with different shaped cross-sections

The shock wave dynamics, spontaneous ignition and flame variation during high-pressure hydrogen release through tubes with different cross-section shapes are experimentally studied. Tubes with square, pentagon and circular cross-section shapes are considered in the experiments. The experimental results show that the cross-section shape of the tube has no great difference on the minimum burst pressure for spontaneous ignition in our tests. In the three tubes with length of 300 mm, spontaneous ignition may occur when overpressure of shock wave is 0.9 MPa. When the spontaneous ignition is induced in a non-circular cross-section tube, the possible turbulent flow in the corner of the tube increases can promote the mixing of hydrogen and air, thus producing more amount of the hydrogen/air mixture. As a result, both the peak light signal and flame duration detected in the non-circular cross-section tubes are more intense than those in the circular tube. The smaller angle of the corner leads to a more intensity flame inside tube. When the hydrogen flame propagates to the tube exit from the circular tube, the ball-like flame developed near tube exit is relatively weak. In addition, second flame separation outside the tube is observed for the cases of non-circular cross-section tubes.