Hazards of hydrogen transport in the existing natural gas pipeline network

The development of European economies will occur in parallel with efforts aiming to reduce the use of fossil fuels in power generation and transport. This has led to an increased interest in hydrogen as the energy carrier of the future. However, before hydrogen can be used efficiently on a large scale, a new hydrogen-based economy will have to be developed to serve gas production, storage and transport needs. An alternative to what would be rather costly investment in new infrastructure could be to use the existing network of gas pipelines by adding hydrogen to natural gas and transporting the mixture. The new solution should be considered in terms of research on the technological adaptation of the existing pipelines (appropriate fixtures and fittings, materials, pipeline geometry) as well as on possible consequences of a potential failure and the related serious hazards. The paper presents the results of an analysis of the effects of a jet fire arising due to an uncontrolled release of natural gas and its mixture with hydrogen from a pipeline. The impact of the variability in the gas and the pipeline parameters on the severity of the consequences is shown.

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Opracowanie rekordu w ramach umowy 509/P-DUN/2018 ze środków MNiSW przeznaczonych na działalność upowszechniającą naukę (2018).