Fire safety of hydrogen storage and transportation
Authors: Шебеко Ю.Н. 
Published: March 2023

В настоящее время во многих странах мира активно ведутся работы по развитию безуглеродной энергетики, что связано с необходимостью снижения антропогенного воздействия на климат. Важная роль водорода в развитии безуглеродной энергетики обусловлена тем обстоятельством, что энергия, получаемая от возобновляемых источников (например, солнечная, ветровая энергия), производится часто на достаточно большом удалении от мест ее потребления и неравномерно по времени. В связи с этим возникает проблема ее хранения и транспортировки, которая может быть решена путем получения водорода за счет возобновляемых источников энергии с дальнейшей его транспортировкой и хранением. При этом очень важно обеспечить пожаровзрывобезопасность указанных процессов. Решению указанной проблемы посвящен ряд литературных источников, которые являются объектом рассмотрения в данной работе. Проанализированы способы хранения и транспортировки водорода в газообразном (GH2) и жидком состоянии (LH2), а также в виде жидких органических носителей водорода (LOHC).

Nowadays in many countries there are carried out active studies aimed at the development of carbon-free energetics because of the need to reduce the anthropogenic influence on the climate. An important role of hydrogen in the development of this type of energetics is caused by the necessity of an application of renewable energy sources (sun, wind etc.). Energy from these sources is generated non-uniformly in time and often far from places of its consumption. Therefore a problem of a storage and transportation of such energy arises which can be solved by means of a production of hydrogen via the renewable sources with its further storage and transportation. Hydrogen is a flammable gas so fire prevention measures should be applied during these processes. This study is aimed at the analysis of this problem. The following main methods for the storage and the transportation of hydrogen are considered: in a gaseous phase (GH2), in a liquid phase (LH2) and in the form of liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHC). The transportation of a compressed hydrogen can be fulfilled in vessels made of steel (pressure up to 50 MPa), steel with a covering by fiberglass, composite materials (pressure up to 70 MPa), composite materials reinforced by metal strings (pressure up to 100 MPa). An application of cryo-compressed hydrogen (temperature near –233 °C) can be used in order to increase a density of product. The transportation of hydrogen can be performed by means of tubes, but the materials of these tubes should be stable to the action of compressed hydrogen. From an economic viewpoint liquid hydrogen should be stored in large tanks with the volume of 20 000–100 000 m3 (like LNG). But up to now such large tanks are not created due to a very low temperature of LH2. A maximum volume of the existing LH2 tanks is equal to 6000 m3. The key question for a production of the large amount of LH2 is an availability of an effective thermal isolation in order to decrease the liquid hydrogen evaporation. An application of very low pressure inside a space between walls of double-wall tanks can be considered as an effective measure, but an evacuation of this space up to this low pressure can be very durable (up to several months). The application of LOHC is one of the perspective methods for the storage and the transportation of hydrogen. In this case hydrogen is bounded inside LOHC and can be released by means of catalytic dehydrogenation processes. The storage and the transportation of LOHC are not connected with a high fire and explosion hazard which is not higher than in the case of petrol. The analysis of publications in this area is given