Safety investigation of hydrogen charging platform package with CFD simulation

Abstract

Hydrogen has been expected as one of the most promising green energy sources, especially in transportation section. Despite its great potential as a new source of energy, it is reluctant to build hydrogen charging stations for the fear of accidents such as hydrogen leakage, fire, and following explosion. To reduce those problems and promote the acceptance of hydrogen charging station, this study focuses on the hydrogen charging platform package (HCPP) which is a new type of the mobile hydrogen station. Hydrogen leakage cases are investigated using CFD (computational fluid dynamics) simulation. The simulation is performed with the whole configuration of the HCPP including main components, storage, compressor, and dispenser. Based on the risk assessment, hydrogen leak scenarios with high possibilities of accidents are simulated. The simulation results show the leak length of hydrogen gas, its dispersion, and the various ranges of volume ratios of leaked hydrogen gas. Based on the simulation results, it is clearly confirmed that the leaked hydrogen gas with high concentration stays inside the HCPP. Therefore, the effects of ventilation to reduce the possibility of the explosion are continuously considered to investigate the safety of the HCPP in the case of the leakage accident. (C) 2018 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.