Identification of Safety Critical Scenarios of Hydrogen Refueling Stations in a Multifuel Context

The MultHyFuel Project, funded by the Clean Hydrogen Partnership, aims to achieve the effective and safe deployment of hydrogen as a carbon-neutral fuel, by developing a common strategy for implementing Hydrogen Refueling Stations (HRS) in a multifuel context. The project hopes to contribute to the harmonisation of existing regulations, codes and standards (RCS) by generating practical, theoretical and experimental data related to HRS.
This paper presents how a set of safety critical scenarios have been identified from the initial preliminary as well as detailed risk analysis of three different hydrogen refueling station configurations. To achieve this, a detailed examination of each potential hazardous phenomenon (DPh) or major accident event at or near the hydrogen dispenser was carried out. Particular attention is paid to the scenarios which could affect third parties external to the refueling station.
The paper presents a methodology subdivided into the following steps:
♦ determination of the consequence level and likelihood of each hazardous phenomenon,
♦ the classification of major hazard scenarios for the 3 HRS configurations, specifically those arising on the dispensing forecourt;
♦ proposal of example preventative, control and/or mitigation barriers that could potentially reduce the probability of occurrence and/ or consequences of safety critical scenarios, and hence reducing risks to a tolerable level or to as low as reasonably practicable.