Safety Issues of the Liquefaction, Storage and Transportation of Liquid Hydrogen

The objectives of the IDEALHY project, which receives funding from the European Union’s 7th Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) for the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Technology Initiative under grant agreement No. 278177, are to design a novel process that will significantly increase the efficiency of hydrogen liquefaction and be capable of delivering liquid hydrogen at a rate that is an order of magnitude greater than current plants. The liquid hydrogen could then be delivered to refueling stations in road tankers. As part of the project, the safety management of the new large scale process and the transportation of liquid hydrogen by road tanker into urban areas are being considered. Effective safety management requires that the hazards are identified and well understood. This paper describes the scope of the safety work within IDEALHY and presents the output of the work completed so far. Initially, a review of available experimental data on the hazards posed by releases of liquid hydrogen was undertaken, which identified that, generally, there is a dearth of data relevant to liquid hydrogen releases. Subsequently, HAZIDs have been completed for the new liquefaction process, storage of liquid hydrogen and its transportation by road. This included a review of incidents relevant to these activities. The principal causes of the incidents have been analysed. Finally, the remaining safety work for the IDEALHY project is outlined.