Session: 09-05-01 integrity, threats, and risks for H2 pipelines

Paper Number: 133459

133459 - Impact of High Speed Hydrogen Flow on System Integrity and Noise 

Abstract: 

Existing infrastructure used for transporting natural gas could be used in the future to transport hydrogen. The HyDelta program aims at resolving open questions connected to the transport of hydrogen in The Netherlands. To ensure reliable and safe supply, infrastructure is built and operated according to standards and norms for pipeline integrity. An open question is whether the same amount of energy transported with hydrogen as currently with natural gas results in a larger impact on the integrity of the system and the environment around it.

High flow velocities are associated to larger pressure drop and higher risk of noise emissions, vibrations and erosion. The flow speed is determined by the selection of system capacity, operating conditions, hardware sizing and economic evaluation. The value that provides the lowest levelized cost of transport determines what the resulting flow velocity is at all points of the transport system. However, the flow velocity itself can be a constraint in this optimization due to the risks mentioned. For natural gas, this limit is commonly set at 20 m/s (72 km/h), though this is not the case for every segment of the network and at specific locations this can reach higher values. If the same limit would be applied to hydrogen, it may be an unnecessarily conservative constraint on the capacity of new and re-purposed systems to transport energy.

In this study, a review is made of flow-induced risk mechanisms for intrusive equipment, flow-induced turbulence, flow-induced pulsations, acoustics-induced vibration, flow-induced noise and erosion. A generic benchmark between the transport of (Dutch) natural gas and hydrogen is presented, when an equal energy transport capacity between the two carriers is assumed, which in practice means whether hydrogen can flow 3 times faster than natural gas. The objective of the benchmark is to evaluate whether under this assumption, any of the phenomena analysed hinders transport at such conditions. In other words, whether the allowable flow velocity for hydrogen can be larger than the value traditionally used for natural gas.

Presenting Author: Irma Meijer TNO

Presenting Author Biography: Ms Meijer is a consultant at TNO in the department of Heat Transfer and Fluid Dynamics. She addresses pulsation and vibration issues challenges with a combination of numerical modelling, field measurements and laboratory experiments. She is currently interested in the intersection of her expertise with future and emerging energy carriers, such as hydrogen and ammonia.

Authors:

Néstor González Díez TNO
Stefan Belfroid TNO
Leonard Van Lier TNO
Irma Meijer TNO