Safety Calculations for Emerging Technologies

As part of executing 25 hydrogen-based Power to X (PtX) projects, our team of Safety consultants has completed safety and risk assessments for a number of hydrogen production developments. Drawing on this experience we will present the importance of making comparisons between hydrogen specific data sources such as HyRAM, and conventional oil and gas data sets and calculation methods to ensure that project design is carried out to the most appropriate data and provides a robust solution to demonstrate risks are managed. This presentation will be based on case studies where Fire and Explosion Risk Assessments (FERA) and Quantitative Risk Assessments (QRA) were conducted. The frequency calculations for these assessments used the release frequencies and ignition probabilities provided in HyRAM. However, it is noted that the HyRAM ignition probabilities are derived from a correlation from oil and gas assessments in the 1990s. The oil and gas approach has moved on from this data source, and now derives ignition probabilities based on the type of facility and fluid characteristics. To address this evolution, a comparison was made between the leak frequencies for equipment in hydrogen service and established oil and gas release frequencies from IOGP. In addition, a comparison between the HyRAM recommended ignition probabilities and the correlations used for oil and gas (from OEUK, formerly UKOOA) was conducted. By taking this approach, it was confirmed that the UKOOA data was more conservative, and sensitivity calculations were carried out. It was also noted that, as hydrogen technologies are emerging, there is a level of uncertainty around the data and comparisons must be regularly made to ensure the most appropriate basis for calculations is used.