Hydrogen Fueling Stations

Marshall Miller
Institute of Transportation Studies
November 15, 2004

Outline
• Hydrogen fueling station hardware

• General hydrogen safety

• Hydrogen fueling station safety

 Hydrogen Fueling Station
Hardware

Hydrogen Fueling Station Basics

• Production/delivery

• Compression

• Storage

• Dispensing
Hydrogen Station Types I

MOBILE STATION WITH HP GAS

STORAGE, OPTIONAL COMPRESSOR

AND DISPENSING EQUIPMENT

Hydrogen Station Types II

NEARBY HYDROGEN

PLANT (E.G. NG
TRUCK DELIVERY (E.G., FROM

REFORMER)
NG REFORMER AND

COMPRESSION PLANT)

H
Station Capacity by Station Type
MOBILE FUELERS

K-BOTTLES DELIVERY

TUBE TRAILER DELIVERY

LIQUID HYDROGEN
DELIVERY AND STORAGE

ON-SITE ELECTROLYZER

ON-SITE REFORMER

HYDROGEN PIPELINE

1 10 100 1000 10000

HYDROGEN DISPENSING CAPACITY ( kg / day )

Vehicles Served by Station Type

Hydrogen Usage Light Duty Vehicles Transit Buses

Station Type (kg/day) Refueling at Station Fueled per Day
Mobile 1 – 120 1 – 180 1–8
Cylinders 0– 3 1– 4 0
Tube Trailer 3 – 250 5 – 380 1 – 16
Liquid Delivery 10 – 3,000 15 – 4,500 1 – 190
Electrolysis 2 – 60 3 – 90 1–4
On-site reformer 20 – 10,000 30 – 15,000 1 – 640
Pipeline 10 – 10,000 15 – 15,000 1 – 640
 Mobile Fueler

Tube Trailer
• Full tubes are delivered with tractor
• Empty tubes are picked up and refilled
• Stores ~ 250 kg
Liquid Storage Tank (1500 gal)

H2Gen Reformer (25 kg/day)

 Compressors
• Generally compress to 6250 psi for 5000
psi fills
• Compressors must be oil free (for fuel
cells)
• Critical to determine the throughput (scfm)
– UC Davis 300 scfm (very high)
– Need enough per day to fuel all vehicle

Compressor
Stuart Electrolyser

Dispensor Nozzle
 CaFCP Station

Station Design
• Determine hydrogen demand
– Kg/day (random fueling)
– Kg/fueling interval (e.g. fleets)
• Production/delivery, compression, buffer
storage sized to ensure hydrogen supply
– Costly to be too conservative
– If hardware undersized, cannot meet demand
 Component Sizing
• Compressor, reformer
– Steady state throughputs (scfh)
– Reformers generally want to be operated all
the time
– Compressors can be on/off
• Buffer storage
– Cascaded system to increase storage
efficiency

Cascade Buffer Storage

• Single pressure vessel
– When pressure drops below vehicle maximum can no
longer supply full fills
• System of vessels manifolded together
– Similar to single vessel
• System of cascaded vessels
– Draw down 1st vessel until pressure equals vehicle
– Draw down 2nd vessel until pressure equals vehicle
– Continue until full fill
– Allows significantly more gas from cascaded system
to be dispensed into vehicles
 General Hydrogen
Safety

Hydrogen Gas
• Lightest element
• Odorless
• Tasteless
• Colorless
• Environmentally Benign
• Flammable
 Key Physical Properties
• Molecular weight: 2.0016
• LHV: 120,020 Kj/kg
• Boiling point: 20 degrees K (-423 F)
• Specific gravity: 0.070 (air = 1)
• Specific volume: 191.98 scf/lb (422.4
scf/kg)
• Flammability limits: 4.1 – 75% by volume
(in air)

Hazards of Hydrogen at Fueling

Stations
• Pressure
• Flammability
• Asphyxiant
– Compressed gas
– Expansion of liquid
• Temperature (liquid)
 Pressure
• Hydrogen under high pressure at station
– 100’s psi at production
– 4500 to 6250 psi in storage
– Vehicles typically store hydrogen at 5000 psi
• All components must have pressure relief
valves
• Some consider pressure a greater danger
than flammability

Flammability
• Easy to ignite
– Very low energy necessary to ignite
– Static can cause ignition
– Hydrogen can ignite when valve is opened
• Burns with an almost invisible pale blue
flame (cannot see during the day)
• Flammability limits are very large
compared to other fuels
 Flammability (cont.)
• Flammability range in air is much wider than
gasoline or natural gas (< 20% by volume)
• Minimum ignition energy ~ one order of
magnitude less than gasoline and natural gas
• But -
– Minimum H2 ignition energy at ~29% (very
hard to reach)
– At low concentrations, ignition energy is about
the same for all three gases.

Cryogenic Hazards
• Cold burns from contact
• Embrittle materials (they may fail sooner)
• Large expansion ratio (1 gallon = 113 scf)
• Boil off released in vent stacks
• Gas warms quickly
• Liquid air may drip from lines
 Hindenburg
• Public associates Hindenburg with unsafe
hydrogen fire
• Fire was caused by high volatility paint on
surface of blimp
• Although hydrogen eventually ignited, no
deaths were caused by hydrogen fire

Can Hydrogen Fueling Station

Create Hydrogen Bomb?
• Hydrogen bombs are result of fusion (not
fission as with atomic bomb)
• Fusion of hydrogen occurs at
temperatures of over 20 million degrees
• Hydrogen bomb requires atomic bomb
explosion to create fusion temperatures
• Hydrogen in vehicles or fueling station
cannot explode like hydrogen bomb
Safety Advantages of Hydrogen
• Very high dispersion rate, highly buoyant
– Greatest safety advantage
– Very hard to create flammable mixture of
hydrogen
• No toxicity

• Does not pool

Safety Disadvatages of Hydrogen

• Cannot see or smell hydrogen

(cannot detect leaks without
equipment)
• Low ignition energy
• Wide flammability range
• Cannot see flames
• High pressures
Is Hydrogen a Safety Concern?
• Yes…
– All fuels can be dangerous.
• All fuels must be engineered to be safe
• Hydrogen has been used in industrial
applications for over 50 years and has a
good safety record.
• People working with hydrogen generally
believe that hydrogen is as safe as other
motor fuels.

Hydrogen Fueling Station

Safety
 Station Approval
• Stations must be approved by AHJs
• Fire Marshal key to approval
–Based on safety codes relevant to
hydrogen stations (none exist
currently)
• Environmental approval

Codes and Standards

• Codes
– Set of broad technical system requirements usually
dealing with safety or performance of overall system
– Established by Code Development Organizations
such as NFPA, SAE, NIST
– Permitting based on these
• Standards
– Set of specific technical features for hardware
component
– Example: Fueling dispenser nozzle
 Code Status
• There exist no codes specifically for
hydrogen fueling stations

• Present stations are permitted based on

industrial codes for hydrogen and other
components (piping, pressure vessel,
building codes)

Hydrogen Highway Implementation

Topic Team Recommendations
• Various CDOs are in the process of updating codes for
hydrogen fueling stations
• NFPA 52 specifically deals with natural gas and
hydrogen stations (draft form)
• SAE working on fueling codes and standards (nozzles,
fueling algorithms, hydrogen quality, hydrogen
measurement of flow rates, etc.)
• California Weights and Measures/NIST must specify for
CA methods of gas dispensing measurement and
hydrogen quality guidelines
• Additional issues for liquid dispensing
• Very little being addressed for HCNG fueling
 NFPA 52
• Standoffs from hydrogen equipment to building
doorways, compressor inlets, etc.
• Piping, valves, pressure gauges
• Compressors, pressure vessels, dispensors
• System testing, maintenance, and repair
• Electrical systems
• Labeling
• Often references other codes

Risk Assessment and Management

• Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA)
– Hazard extent + fequency
– Continue until Codes in place
• HazOp
– Detailed design review
– Continue until codes in place
• Emergency Response Plan
– Detailed plan for execution if incident occurs
Risk Assessment and Management
• Control/Recovery Register
– Details site, equipment, operations, etc.
– Continue until codes in place
• Insurance
• First Responder Training
– To mitigate impact of incidents
• Operations Inspections
– To enforce safe operations

Real World Permitting Process

• Fire Marshals are relatively ignorant of
hydrogen codes and safety concerns
• Extensive education is necessary.
• Current permitting often involves station
provider educating local Fire Marshal
• Local AHJs can do whatever they choose
in permitting
• In many cases, AHJs are very
conservative