Introduction

Process description

Methodology

Results and discussions

Conclusions

References

Abstract

Hydrogen is one of important energy source in the next generation of renewable energy. It has powerful strength such as no emission from CO2 for fuel, Nevertheless, many countries have difficulties to expand hydrogen infra due to high risky from hydrogen. Especially, the hydrogen refueling station which is located in urban area has congested structure and high population around, it has higher risk than conventional refueling station. This paper presents a quantitative risk assessment (QRA) of a high pressure hydrogen refueling station in an urban area with a large population and high congestion between the instruments and equipment. The results show that leaks from the tube-trailer and dispenser as well as potential explosion of the tube-trailer are the main risks. For the safety of the station operator, customers and people surrounding the refueling station, additional mitigation plans such as adding additional safety barrier system have to be implemented on the compressor and dispenser in order to prevent continuous release of hydrogen from an accident.

Introduction

As environmental pollution increases from the combustion of hydrocarbon fuels, the demand for energy is expected to shift to renewable fuels such as biomass, solar cell, wind power and hydrogen. Among renewable energies, hydrogen is the only fuel with zero emissions. The advent of hydrogen vehicles is likely to increase the demand for hydrogen and cause the hydrogen market to grow quickly. Hydrogen is not a popular fuel yet for a few reasons, including its flammability and low ignition energy [1,2]. Nevertheless, hydrogen has been used in a wide range of fields, the most well-known being hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCV) in Korea. The Korean government has provided support to build, hydrogen refueling stations in many areas, but only a few stations are in operation now. In order for FCVs to become more mainstream, a network of hydrogen refueling stations must be built. For this reason, many risk assessment studies have been conducted on the safe design of hydrogen refueling stations. Chitose et al. suggested the methodology, probabilistic risk analysis (PRA), for hydrogen refueling stations [3]. Risk assessments for high pressure systems were carried out using risk matrix [4].