Safety studies on high-pressure hydrogen vehicle refuelling stations: Releases into a simulated high-pressure dispensing area

The feasibility of distributed hydrogen production from renewable energy sources and the financial contribution from UK motorists on environmental grounds

“…The hazard potential of a hydrogen release in a refuelling area involving actual hydrogen combustion experiments have been conducted by Royle and Willoughby (2011) by simulating pipework failure allowing the release of high pressure hydrogen and using the ignition data to predict safe distances for people from high pressure components. A further study by Shirvill et al (2012) involved igniting hydrogen releases into a full-scale model of a refuelling area complete with vehicle to simulate leaks from refuelling equipment. The resulting explosion characteristics in terms of overpressure could be used to predict the damage potential of the blasts.…”

Effects of congestion and confining walls on turbulent deflagrations in a hydrogen storage facility-part 2: Numerical study

“…More realistic environments were chosen for the second and third parts. In the second part, experiments were performed to study the maximum overpressures generated in an ignited high pressure jet release and ignition of a premixed hydrogen-air cloud in a mock hydrogen refuelling station [5]. The effect of hydrogen concentration, ignition location and confining wall on generated explosion overpressures was studied.…”

“…The numerical investigation was carried out using the commercial CFD code CFX [3] for the high pressure blowdown leak from hydrogen storage at 40 MPa based on experiments by [5]. The experiment represents an uncontrolled full bore failure of a vehicle refuelling hose, ignited using an electric spark.…”

“…They concluded that the overpressures generated in a constant flow rate jet release case are higher than those generated in a blowdown jet release case. Numerical simulations [8] were performed for the hydrogen dispersion and combustion in an accidental scenario in a mock-up liquid hydrogen refuelling station, geometry setup based on experiments [5]. The effect of wind direction and ignition source on the dispersion and explosion overpressures of the hydrogen flammable cloud were investigated.…”

Safety study of a wind–solar hybrid renewable hydrogen refuelling station in China

“…UK researchers L.C. Shirvill et al [5] performed safety studies on high-pressure hydrogen vehicle refuelling stations and investigate releases into a simulated high-pressure dispensing area. Japan researchers Shigeki Kikukawa et al [6] carried out a risk assessment on a liquid hydrogen fuelling station in Japan and revealed the effectiveness and suitability of safety measures for liquid hydrogen fuelling stations through the use of the proposed risk matrix.…”