EXTERNAL PUBLICATIONS

SUMMARY

In the long term the key to the development of a hydrogen economy is a full infrastructure to support it, which includes means for the delivery and storage of hydrogen at the point of use, eg at hydrogen refuelling stations for vehicles. As an interim measure to allow the development of refuelling stations and rapid implementation of hydrogen distribution to them, liquid hydrogen is considered the most efficient and cost effective means for transport and storage.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have commissioned the Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL) to identify and address issues relating to bulk liquid hydrogen transport and storage and update/develop guidance for such facilities. The second phase of the project involved experiments on unignited (HSE RR986) and ignited releases of liquid hydrogen (HSE RR987) and computational modelling of the unignited releases. This position paper assesses the ability of the cryogenic liquid spill models available to the HSE to model spills of liquid hydrogen by using the new experimental data obtained from the experimental testing at HSL.

A brief literature review on modelling liquid hydrogen pool spread was undertaken and modelling with GASP (Gas Accumulation over Spreading Pools) to compare results with the experimental measurement data. Recommendations are made on improvements to currently available models and also recommendations for further model validation data.