Steering Committee Progress Report on Hydrogen Sensor Performance Testing and Evaluation under the Memorandum of Agreement between NREL, U.S. DOE and JRC-IET, EC (original) (raw)
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Summary and Findings from the NREL/DOE Hydrogen Sensor Workshop (June 8, 2011)
2012
v Concentration unit of a component in a gas mixture, expressed as a fraction of the volume of the component to the total gas volume scaled by a factor of 10 6 psi Pounds per square inch RH Relative Humidity vi T Temperature TCD Thermal Conductivity Detector UE Utility Enclosure UL Underwriters Laboratories V DC Volts of direct current vol% Concentration unit of a component in a gas mixture, expressed as a volume percentage of the component to the total gas volume vii
2016
Hydrogen sensors are recognized as a critical element in the safety design for any hydrogen system. In this role, sensors can perform several important functions including indication of unintended hydrogen releases, activation of mitigation strategies to preclude the development of dangerous situations, activation of alarm systems and communication to first responders, and to initiate system shutdown. The functionality of hydrogen sensors in this capacity is decoupled from the system being monitored, thereby providing an independent safety component that is not affected by the system itself. The importance of hydrogen sensors has been recognized by DOE and by the Fuel Cell Technologies Office's Safety and Codes Standards (SCS) program in particular, which has for several years supported hydrogen safety sensor research and development. The SCS hydrogen sensor programs are currently led by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Lawrence Liver...
An overview of hydrogen safety sensors and requirements
International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 2011
There exists an international commitment to increase the utilization of hydrogen as a clean and renewable alternative to carbon-based fuels. The availability of hydrogen safety sensors is critical to assure the safe deployment of hydrogen systems. Already, the use of hydrogen safety sensors is required for the indoor fueling of fuel cell powered forklifts (e.g., NFPA 52, Vehicular Fuel Systems Code [1]). Additional Codes and Standards specific to hydrogen detectors are being developed [2, 3], which when adopted will impose mandatory analytical performance metrics. There are a large number of commercially available hydrogen safety sensors. Because end-users have a broad range of sensor options for their specific applications, the final selection of an appropriate sensor technology can be complicated. Facility engineers and other end-users are expected to select the optimal sensor technology choice. However, some sensor technologies may not be a good fit for a given application. Informed decisions require an understanding of the general analytical performance specifications that can be expected by a given sensor technology. Although there are a large number of commercial sensors, most can be classified into relatively few specific sensor types (e.g., electrochemical, metal oxide, catalytic bead and others). Performance metrics of commercial sensors produced on a specific platform may vary between manufacturers, but to a significant degree a specific platform has characteristic analytical trends, advantages, and limitations. Knowledge of these trends facilitates the selection of the optimal technology for a specific application (i.e., indoor vs. outdoor environments). An understanding of the various sensor options and their general analytical performance specifications would be invaluable in guiding the selection of the most appropriate technology for the designated application.
Overview of North American Hydrogen Sensor Standards
2015
The use of hydrogen as a fuel has already been established in commercial markets, including stationary power systems (e.g., backup power) and fuel-cell-powered industrial trucks (e.g., forklifts), and further growth is expected with the pending release of hydrogen-powered fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV) for the consumer market. The hydrogen infrastructure, including fueling facilities, repair garages, storage, and transport, must now expand to accommodate FCEVs. However, numerous barriers exist that impede hydrogen infrastructure implementation; one critical barrier is the permitting of new hydrogen facilities. Codes and standards are important in ensuring safety and encouraging commercialization. The availability of components certified to national standards, including safety sensors designed to detect unintended hydrogen releases, can facilitate the design and permitting of hydrogen facilities. The aim of the report is to facilitate hydrogen infrastructure implementation by providing:
Preliminary Performance Assessment of Commercially-Available Hydrogen Sensors
Materials Issues in a Hydrogen Economy - Proceedings of the International Symposium, 2009
As part of an effort to develop standard test methods for the performance of commercial hydrogen sensors, we employed the Fire Emulator / Detector Evaluator, an instrumented flow system designed to study the response of fire detectors (smoke, heat, gas), in a preliminary study to evaluate the performance of a representative selection of commercially-available hydrogen sensors. These sensors depend on a variety of sensing technologies including metal-oxide semiconductors, electrochemical cells, catalytic bead pellistors, thermal conductivity sensors, and sensors employing a combination of technologies. They were evaluated both for their response to hydrogen concentrations up to half the lower flammability limit, and their response to nuisance gases (CO, CO2, NOx, hydrocarbon gas and vapor-all potentially present in hydrogen dispensing and storage areas), as well as dynamic changes in environmental conditions by varying temperature, humidity, and flow velocity. These performance evaluations provide guidance for the development of a test method designed to assess real-world performance of hydrogen gas sensors. The ultimate goal is to develop standard test methods to be employed by product certification agencies.
Recent developments in the search for renewable energy coupled with the advancements in fuel cell powered vehicles have augmented the demand for hydrogen safety sensors [1]. There are several sensor technologies that have been developed to detect hydrogen, including deployed systems to detect leaks in manned space systems and hydrogen safety sensors for laboratory and industrial usage.