Commercialization of the NLR Hydrogen Wide Area Monitor (HyWAM): Cooperative Research and Development Final Report, CRADA Number CRD-18-00784

Hydrogen wide area monitoring refers to the temporal and quantitative 3-dimenasional spatial profiling of hydrogen plumes following either intentional or unintentional hydrogen releases. A hydrogen wide area monitor (HyWAM) would have applications as a research tool, for example to provide empirical data on the behavior of hydrogen dispersions following a release, which in turn can be used to validate modelling studies. Support of modeling studies and commercial applications are interrelated, since modeling can serve to guide HyWAM deployment for enhanced safety within medium to large scale hydrogen operations, such as those envisioned by H2@Scale [1]. An economical, automated, and easily implemented HyWAM design did not exist prior to the TCF project. The NLR Sensor Laboratory (formerly, the NLR Sensor Laboratory had previously developed and demonstrated a prototype multi-point hydrogen detection system that can form the basis of a commercial HyWAM [2]. The initial NLR HyWAM was based on a distributed network of gas measurement points based on commercial hydrogen point sensors. The early HyWAM prototype analyzer was developed to address knowledge gaps identified by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 2 Hydrogen Technologies Code, Hydrogen Storage Safety Task Group. Critical identified safety gaps pertained to the behavior of cold hydrogen plumes associated with operational venting and other release scenarios of a LH2 system. The NLR HyWAM concept of a distributed network of measurement points has been shown to be amenable either to liquid hydrogen (LH2) [3] [4] [5] and gaseous hydrogen (GH2) systems [6], [[7], [8]. The first HyWAM prototype was developed in response to a need to elucidate the behavior of released hydrogen to inform development of hydrogen safety codes and standards. Within the United States, NFPA 2 (National Fire Protection Code 2 "Hydrogen Technologies Code") provides the fundamental safeguards for the use of hydrogen in both GH2 and LH2 forms . The NFPA 2 Hydrogen Storage Task Group was formed, in part, to explore approaches to minimize the risks and hazards associated with LH2 storage and utilization, and to facilitate its use in commercial applications. Although advances have been made in understanding the behavior of cold hydrogen plumes in the past few years, at the beginning TCF CRADA project, there were significant gaps in understanding LH2 dispersion behavior because empirical field data were essentially nonexistent. Even now, LH2 dispersion behavior remains neither fully understood nor fully characterized and is an ongoing subject of research. Modeling of LH2 releases continues to be an active area of interest for the NFPA 2 Storage Task Group. Within the United States, this activity is being led by Sandia National Laboratory (SNL), which has developed models of LH2 release behavior under controlled conditions [4], [10]. At the request of the NFPA 2 Task Group, the NLR Sensor Laboratory developed an early prototype hydrogen detection system for the multi-point continuous, quantitative monitoring of hydrogen; the system was explicitly developed to measure cold hydrogen plume dispersion during a routine venting of a LH2 storage tank at a commercial LH2 facility (see Figure 1) [10]. This proof-of-concept measurement system for cold hydrogen plume modeling was developed and field tested at a commercial LH2 facility. One outcome of the TCF CRADA project was the development and field deployment of a second-generation HyWAM NLR Hydrogen Analyzer for several LH2 venting studies [4], [5]. Such deployments show that the HyWAM system can form the basis for a commercial Hydrogen Wide Area Monitor.