Hydrogen Safety Solutions

We help our clients develop a safe and regulatory compliant hydrogen industry towards a carbon-free future

Hydrogen safety solutions applicable across all hydrogen supply chain

Hydrogen is increasingly seen as an important component of the clean-energy mix for a sustainable energy future. It has been identified as an alternative fuel that, if generated from clean energy or combined with CCUS (Carbon Capture Usage and Storage), could help bring the world towards a low-carbon society.

Due to its flammability, buoyancy, its ability to embrittle metals and other properties that require engineering control, designing a hydrogen system that ensures its safe use can be a challenging process. Awareness of hydrogen hazards is critical so that early precautions can be taken, such as designing a reliable hydrogen system.

Gexcon offers a complete solution to support our clients in understanding and mitigating the consequence of hydrogen hazards.

Engineering software for safety and design optimization

Perform your safety studies with authoritative consequence and risk modelling software.

FLACS-CFD (3D consequence modelling tool)

FLACS-CFD is an advanced and most comprehensively validated 3D Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tool for the simulation of hydrogen dispersion, explosion, and fire scenarios around complex geometries, including far-field effects related to blast propagation. The tool includes specific models for hydrogen, such as the ability to simulate high-pressure hydrogen gas releases using the real gas law, and liquid hydrogen releases.

FLACS-CFD can be used on any geometry and wind/ventilation conditions and has been extensively validated making it the 3D CFD tool of choice for process safety applications by oil companies, consultants, and regulatory authorities in order to evaluate the risk connected with the use of hydrogen. It allows its many users to both understand the consequence of hydrogen events on their facilities, and to test and evaluate mitigation strategies, such as water spray systems, inert gases, and layout changes.

EFFECTS & RISKCURVES (2D consequence modelling and QRA tool)

EFFECTS & RISKCURVES are well suited to model release- and direct ignition scenarios of Hydrogen scenarios like a leak, a jet fire and a fire ball. Several internal consequence models are specifically tuned to predict the typical behaviour of H2. A technical note, available on our download site, describes suggested modelling settings and potential limitations when applying EFFECTS or RISKCURVES to model typical Hydrogen scenarios.

Shell FRED & Shell Shepherd (2D consequence modelling and QRA tool)

Shell FRED is a well-validated consequence modelling tool, with a range of models that are well suited to hydrogen scenarios. The jet fire model has been validated against a wide range of experimental data, and published papers describe the applicability of the dispersion model and vessel burst (pressure vessel failure) models to hydrogen scenarios. Additionally, the CAM (Congestion Assessment Method) explosion model, available in both FRED and Shepherd, has been validated for use with hydrogen. This model also includes a prediction of whether an explosion is likely to transition to detonation (the phenomenon known as DDT, Deflagration to Detonation Transition).

Finally, all of FRED’s scenarios are underpinned by a full thermodynamic package, which allows explicit consideration of complex mixtures (i.e., hydrogen in a carrier) and phenomena such as the Joule-Thomson effect and the heating effect this can have with high-pressure hydrogen.

Consulting services for a safe and regulatory compliant hydrogen industry

Gexcon Consulting offers a full spectrum of safety studies for the hydrogen industry. Our consultants have experience working with facilities across all hydrogen supply chains and from all parts of the facility life cycle.

Our experience includes a wide range of industries and compressed as well as liquefied hydrogen. They are also expert users of the Gexcon software products and can give advice on what tools are appropriate for your safety study.

Key services include:

Early-stage risk analysis to identify potential hazards
Full facility risk analysis to map risk exposure on-site and off-site
Verification of safety studies to ensure compliance with relevant standards and regulations
Detailed modelling of hydrogen release and explosion consequences
Quantitative risk analysis for siting and licensing purposes
Verify structural response

Read more about Gexcon Consulting’s service offering here.

Incident Investigation

Understand the causes of incidents or near misses to prevent similar accidents from reoccurring in the future.

Gexcon can help with all aspects of incident investigations, from coordinating the investigation to conducting root cause analysis, providing recommendations, implementing strategies to prevent further incidents from occurring, and acting as expert witnesses during litigations.

Learn more about our incident investigation support here.

Hydrogen safety course to upskill your team

Expand your team’s understanding of hydrogen hazards with our course, covering topics such as hydrogen explosion properties, relevant research, regulations, preventive and protective measures, dispersion, and explosion modelling, etc.

We can also develop specific topics based on your organisation’s needs.

Reach us at info@gexcon.com for more information.

Why choose Gexcon’s hydrogen safety solutions?

We are actively involved within the global research community on hydrogen safety, which has kept us updated on the topic’s latest findings. The research we are involved in emphasizes CFD modeling of gaseous and liquid releases, jet fires, and deflagrations. We have also been involved in developing methodologies for Quantitative Risk Analysis (QRA) for hydrogen applications.