We are leading the way in understanding hydrogen fuel safety and hydrogen risks by partnering with our customers to characterize and understand the unique challenges associated with flammable and explosion hazards as well as material compatibility due to temperature extremes in the hydrogen supply chain. With our industry experience and client partnerships, we are well positioned to provide guidance on engineering systems that allow for safe manufacturing, storage, and delivery of hydrogen fuel including the safe placement of hydrogen fueling stations.
Hydrogen Carrier Safety
The hydrogen economy is also looking at carriers such as ammonia and methanol for hydrogen delivery because it is much easier to liquefy, store, and transport these materials than hydrogen. Currently, ammonia shows great promise as a hydrogen carrier because electrochemical systems can convert ammonia to fuel-cell-ready clean hydrogen on-site at any scale. Ammonia, while harder to ignite and with a much lower explosion energy than hydrogen, has the unique challenge of being an acute inhalation toxic material. In parallel to our testing programs focused on the flammable and explosive characteristics of hydrogen and ammonia, we have tested and characterized safe design of toxic shelters for protection of people from acute toxic hazards like ammonia. Internationally, our clients include both ammonia producers and consumers who are looking to mitigate risk to acceptable levels in a variety of different applications including transportation fuel as well as industrial and agricultural uses. While ammonia seems to be leading the way as a hydrogen carrier for the marine industry, methanol may prove to be a good alternative for vehicle applications.
Are hydrogen cells the future?
Investment activity shows a clear trend towards hydrogen as an integral part of the sustainable energy mix for the future. With over half of senior oil and gas professionals expecting hydrogen to be a significant part of the energy mix, the analysis and understanding of the safety of hydrogen and hydrogen carriers (i.e., ammonia and methanol) as fuel sources is essential. In 2019, hydrogen explosions associated with hydrogen fueling in Gangneung, Korea (May); Santa Clara, California (June); and Baerum, Norway (June) emphasized the need for proactive safety analysis of hydrogen infrastructure. Our commitment is to help our clients in safely developing the production and infrastructure for hydrogen to be the sustainable alternative in the future energy economy mix.
Click below to see some of our tests:
BakerRisk professionals have performed a wide range of hydrogen safety and ammonia safety services:
- Incident Investigation and Litigation Support
- Testing
- Flammable, ignition probability, and explosion testing
- Hazard Identification
- Consequence and Risk Analysis
- Production facilities
- Electrolysis and carbon capture and storage (CCS)
- Filling stations
- Transportation including truck, rail, and pipeline
- Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) Fuel cells
- Hydrolyzer and Electrolyzer
- Materials Science
- High temperature hydrogen attack and hydrogen embrittlement failure analysis
- Building Design Risk Mitigation
- Blast resistant building design
- Design to NFPA 2: Hydrogen Technologies Code
- Consequence and Risk Analysis
- Transportation risk assessments including network and business interruption potential
- Building Design Risk Mitigation
- Personnel protection with hazard resistant and shelter-in-place (SIP) building design
- Air ingress testing and integrated toxic detection systems for critical building personnel
- Risk mitigation plans for safe sheltering and evacuation
With a comprehensive understanding of hydrogen’s unique properties as well as the safety related risks in the hydrogen value chain, BakerRisk will provide you with a wholistic analysis to understand risks associated with hydrogen, hydrogen fuel, and hydrogen carriers. However, don’t focus only on blast when looking at the future of energy – understanding the potential impacts of fire and toxic exposure is essential for the safe adoption of future fuel sources.
Whether you are producing grey hydrogen, brown hydrogen, blue hydrogen, green hydrogen, or ammonia, we are here for you! Our professionals don’t stop at assessing the operational risks with hydrogen, hydrogen fuel, and hydrogen carriers, we work with you to determine practical solutions for risk reduction and mitigation.
Are you an ammonia producer or consumer interested in knowing more about our Ammonia JIP? Click here or read the article below.
Turquoise Hydrogen
Produced by the thermal splitting of methane (methane pyrolysis) and produces solid carbon instead of CO2
Grey Hydrogen
Produced from natural gas via SMR
Blue Hydrogen
Produced from fossil fuels but use CCS technology for emissions
Brown Hydrogen
Produced from the gasification of coal (or lignite)
Green Hydrogen
Produced by the electrolysis of water using electricity from renewables such as wind, solar or tidal
Pink/Purple/Red Hydrogen
Produced by electrolysis using nuclear power
Yellow Hydrogen
Produced by electrolysis using grid electricity
White Hydrogen
Produced as a byproduct of industrial process
Note: There are no official definitions of these colors, but the above represents common industry nomenclature.
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