Hydrogen safety – An essential part of the entire value chain from the production, storage and distribution of hydrogen to the production of fossil-free steel.

Hydrogen is the key for fossil-free steel – mainly as it is used in the direct reduction of iron ore to pure iron. To be able to use hydrogen in the quantities required for the mining industry in northern Sweden, a production, storage and distribution of hydrogen that can supply the entire region is required. This means that a large-scale infrastructure for hydrogen will be necessary to produce fossil-free steel. An important part to consider for the large-scale infrastructure that will be required is that the properties of hydrogen differ from many other energy carriers. This can potentially affect the properties of iron pellets and ultimately the steel. It can also mean a difference in the level of safety of iron and steel production facilities, but also for the large-scale infrastructure further upstream in the value chain for the production, distribution and storage of hydrogen. It is not uncommon for the issue of safety to be overshadowed in favor of climate or economic goals. In the FINAST project, the question of safety is addressed already at the research stage, which should be seen as unique in this context.

"My experience of working with fire safety in the construction industry is that it is often dealt with late in the projects. This has lock-in effects and often results in expensive Ad-hoc solutions can that work in construction projects. However, this will not work in large-scale hydrogen infrastructure projects. In the FINAST project, we are already trying to work on the safety issue of hydrogen at a research level. In doing so we can strive to ensure that the safety is not a cause of delay for the establishment of hydrogen infrastructure in Norrbotten," says Lucas Andersson, PhD student in Hydrogen Safety and Fire Protection Engineer (MSc)

Hydrogen poses a risk of gas explosion and jet flames

In a scenario where hydrogen emissions occur, it could result in gas explosions or jet flames. It is rarely possible to fully eliminate the probability of this type of accidents, but there are various protective measures that can be used to reduce the consequences to tolerable risk levels. To enable the design of safe facilities, models are required to study how different combinations of protective measures, such as fire/blast protection walls or safety distances, affect the consequences of different accident scenarios.

"It is possible to learn from previous accidents, but since hydrogen technology and associated infrastructure are new in these contexts and will have characteristics that may differ from those that have been relevant in previous accidents, new consequence models for jet flames and gas explosions will be needed. That's where we come in with our research." continues Michael Försth, Professor in Building Construction and Fire

Development of new numerical models to support risk analyses of hydrogen facilities

By developing new numerical models with a specific focus on hydrogen, consequence analysis will be able to be a great support in risk analyses to determine if, or to what degree of, protection methods are required for the risks to be considered tolerable. The models are being developed with hydrogen infrastructure in mind but are not intended to be limited to the value chain for fossil-free steel but will also be able to be used for other types of hydrogen applications. At the same time, the goal is to develop so-called open-source models, which means that the models are made available to industry, for example to fire and risk engineers to use in hydrogen projects. Right now, we are evaluating existing consequence models for gas explosions and jet flames to identify their potential shortcomings that we can bring into the development of our own numerical models. Furthermore, we also work with case studies with existing models to gain a deeper understanding of their basic assumptions, hence limitations in hydrogen applications.