Health & Safety Laboratory - Gas Detection for Hydrogen Enriched Gas Distribution Networks

The UK has committed to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 to help address climate change. Decarbonising heating is a key part of this and using hydrogen (H2) as a replacement to natural gas (NG) can help in achieving this. The objective of current research including HyDeploy, is to demonstrate that NG containing levels of H2 beyond those currently allowed of 0.1 vol% (1000 ppm) [1] can be distributed and utilised safely and efficiently. Initial projects such as HyDeploy are studying the effects of introducing up to 20 vol% H2 in NG but later projects are considering using up to 100 vol% H2.
A key element in the safe operation of a modern gas distribution system is gas detection. However, the addition of hydrogen to NG will alter the characteristics of the gas and the impact on gas detection must be considered. It is important that sensors remain sufficiently sensitive to the presence of hydrogen, natural gas, carbon monoxide (CO) and oxygen (O2) deficiency, and that they don’t lead to false positive or false negative readings. The aim of this document is to provide a summary of the requirements for gas detection of hydrogen enriched natural gas for the gas distribution industry and other potentially interested parties. As such it is based on gas detectors presently used by the industry with the only major differences being the effects of hydrogen on the sensitivity of flammable gas sensors and the cross sensitivity of carbon monoxide gas sensors to hydrogen.
There is further information of gas detector concepts and technologies in the appendices.
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