(165b) A Foundational Framework for Reliability Data Collection for Hydrogen Systems

The international community has embraced the concept of mitigating climate change by transitioning to an energy system with reduced greenhouse gases and particulate emissions, as well as more sustainable energy production methods. Hydrogen has become a candidate for this transition by offering ways to decarbonize various sectors such as long-haul transport, chemicals production, and iron and steel. This is mainly due to its high energy content and clean-burning properties. It is widely recognized that safety and reliability are key issues for the development, commercialization and implementation of technologies or infrastructure. Thus, the wider adoption of hydrogen in various economic sectors, such as fueling stations, requires that the risks associated with it be rigorously investigated and quantified. Quantitative risk assessment (QRA) is an important tool in the development of risk-informed safety codes and standards that aim to reduce risk in engineering systems, including hydrogen fueling stations. QRA activities are instrumental to the development of protective and preventive measures that would make the commercialization and safe use of hydrogen fueling stations more feasible. Enhancing the safety of the systems would aid in gaining public trust and encourage policymakers to adopt regulatory frameworks, easing the way for their deployment on a wider scale.

Rigorous QRA needs reliability data, but current hydrogen safety databases are not in a conducive format for use in QRA. A literature review of articles focusing on hydrogen fueling stations found that lack of reliability data was the most common knowledge gap in the field. In this work, current hydrogen safety data collection tools are examined to assess the state of hydrogen-specific reliability data. These tools include H2Tools, Hydrogen Incident and Accident Database (HIAD), the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Composite Data Products (CDPs), and the Center for Hydrogen Safety (CHS) H2 Equipment & Component Failure Rate Data Submission Form. Next, best practices are examined to determine the state-of-the-art in reliability data collection in analogous industries, specifically oil and gas in the form of the Offshore and Onshore Reliability Data (OREDA) project. The analyses of collection tools and best practices are combined to determine missing types of data and to create a reliability data collection framework for hydrogen fueling stations. This framework aims to present a standardized component hierarchy, failure mode taxonomy, and the necessary high-level elements for robust reliability data collection. This work lays the foundational basis for collaborative hydrogen reliability database that is conducive to QRA use, thereby working towards the goal of aiding wider adoption of safe hydrogen technologies in the economy.