I am communicating with a company that is exploring this technology for an application involving a mixture of flammable gases, including hydrogen.
It’s not clear if “mobile” in the question refers to vehicle fuel tanks, or vessels used for transportation of hazardous materials.
FCEVs usually contain only a minimal amount of hydrogen fuel pressure (several Mpa) to support getting the car on and off car carriers. Panel members are not aware of any hydrogen release incidents during vehicle loading and don’t know what the probability of such a leak is considering the loading operations. A risk assessment accounting for the probability of collisions as well as leaks from…
Generally speaking, the International Fire Code and NFPA 2 apply to non-transportation use of hydrogen. These are maturing quickly, with NFPA 2 currently having issued its most recent edition in 2023. Standards for both on-board LH2 tanks and LH2 tankers for bulk fuel transport are managed by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and are well established. DOT transport requirements for…
Hydrogen gas storage and fuel cell systems are typically closed systems with a variety of monitoring and control functions to prevent leaks. Please check with the bus manufacturer and authority having jurisdiction to verify this is acceptable per their direction. However, a good safety practice would be to minimize the time spent indoors for these activities. Hydrogen vehicles maintained in a…
These distances are based primarily on hydrogen piping releases and resultant vapor clouds and jet flames based on pipe diameter and pressure. It’s important to note that many facilities have issues such as confinement and congestion, so it may be applicable to apply contemporary engineering models to assess risk.
There is technically no upper limit for GH2 storage listed within the separation distance tables within Chapter 7 of NFPA 2. For LH2, there is a 75000-gallon upper limit for the LH2 storage separation distance tables within Chapter 8 for LH2.
It’s important to note that many facilities have site specific issues such as large quantities, confinement, and congestion, so it may be…
The Global Asset Protection Services (GAPS) standard was written 20 years ago for property loss prevention at crowded chemical plants and is intended for existing and new oil and chemical facilities to limit explosion over-pressure and fire exposure damage; thus, the purpose is different than NFPA 2. NFPA distances were based on studies from the 1960s as well as qualitative factors that were…
Previous versions of NFPA 55 listed overhead power lines within the separation distance tables with no voltage distinction. The separation distances were 15 ft for GH2 and 25 ft for LH2 for all overhead electrical lines. The current edition of NFPA 2 includes these in overhead utilities; the distance for GH2 and LH2 will vary with pressure and diameter of the hydrogen piping. In practice, high…
There is limited published research on the effect of water sprays on hydrogen deflagrations and deflagration-to-detonation transition, and more extensive data on water spray effects on hydrocarbon gas explosions. The results show the benefits, where there are benefits, to be highly scenario dependent. For example, Carlson et al. (Atomics International report, 1973) described hydrogen…
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