Germany

The growing attention being paid by car manufacturers and the general public to hydrogen as a middle and long term energy carrier for automotive purpose is giving rise to lively discussions on the advantages and disadvantages of this technology – also with respect to safety. In this connection the focus is increasingly and justifiably so on the possibilities offered by a probabilistic approach to loads and component characteristics: a lower weight oblige Read More

Hydrogen technology requires efficient and safe hydrogen storage systems. For this purpose storage in solid materials such as high capacity complex hydrides is studied intensely. Independent from the actual material to be used eventually any tank design will combine nanoscale powders of highly reactive material with pressurized hydrogen gas and so far little is known about the behaviour of these mixtures in case of incidents. For a first evaluation Read More

Experiments were performed to investigate the radiative heat emission of small scale hydrogen/air explosions also impurified by minor amounts of inert particles and organic fuels. A volume of 1.5 dm3 hydrogen was injected into ambient air as free-jet and ignited. In further experiments simultaneously inert Aerosil and combustible fuels were injected into the blasting hydrogen/air gas cloud. Fuels were a spray of a solvent (Dipropyleneglycol-methyleth Read More

The BMW Hydrogen 7 is the world’s first premium sedan with a bi-fuelled internal combustion engine concept that has undergone the series development process. This car also displays the BMW typical driving pleasure. During development the features of the hydrogen energy source were emphasized. Engine tank system and vehicle electronics were especially developed as integral parts of the vehicle for use with hydrogen. The safety-oriented develop Read More

Hydrogen vehicles may emerge as a leading contender to replace today’s internal combustion engine powered vehicles. A Phenomena Identification and Ranking Table exercise conducted as part of the European Network of Excellence on Hydrogen Safety (HySafe) identified the use of hydrogen vehicles in road tunnels as a topic of important concern. An internal project called HyTunnel was duly established within HySafe to review identify and analyse the i Read More

Experiments in an obstructed semi-confined vertical combustion channel with a height of 6 m (cross-section 0.4 × 0.4 m) inside a safety vessel of the hydrogen test center HYKA at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) are reported. In the work homogeneous hydrogen-air-mixtures as well as mixtures with different well-defined H2-concentration gradients were ignited either at the top or at the bottom end of the channel. The combustion charact Read More

The “SUpport to SAfety aNAlysis of Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies (SUSANA)” project aims to support stakeholders using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) for safety engineering design and assessment of FCH systems and infrastructure through the development of a model evaluation protocol. The protocol covers all aspects of safety assessment modelling using CFD from release through dispersion to combustion (self-ignition fires deflagratio Read More

In many areas European research has been largely fragmented. To support the required integration and to focus and coordinate related research efforts the European Commission created a new instrument the Networks of Excellences (NoEs). The goal of the NoE HySafe has been to provide the basis to facilitate the safe introduction of hydrogen as an energy carrier by removing the safety related obstacles. The prioritisation of the HySafe internal project a Read More

GASFLOW is a finite-volume computer code that solves the time-dependent two-phase homogeneous equilibrium model compressible Navier–Stokes equations for multiple gas species with turbulence. The fluid-dynamics algorithm is coupled with conjugate heat and mass transfer models to represent walls floors ceilings and other internal structures to describe complex geometries such as those found in nuclear containments and facilities. Recent ap Read More

Jet fires develop on release of hydrogen from pressurized storage depending on orifice pressures and volumes. Risks arise from flame contact dispersion of hot gases and heat radiation. The latter varies strongly in time at short scales down to milliseconds caused by turbulent air entrainment and fluctuations. These jets emit bands of OH in the UV and water in the NIR and IR spectral range. These spectra enable the temperature measurement and the e Read More