Development of Tools for Risk Assessment and Risk Communication for Hydrogen Applications-Paper

For decades risk assessment has been an important tool in risk management of activities in several industriesworld wide. It provides among others, authorities and stakeholders with a sound basis for creating awarenessabout existing and potential hazards and risks and making decisions related to how they can prioritise andplan expenditures on risk reduction. The overall goal of the ongoing HySafe project is to contribute to thesafe transition to a more sustainable development in Europe by facilitating the safe introduction of hydrogentechnologies and applications. An essential element in this is the demonstration of safety: that all safetyaspects related to production, transportation and public use are controlled to avoid that introducing hydrogenas energy carrier should pose unacceptable risk to the society.History has proven that introducing risk analysis to new industries is beneficial, e.g. in transportation andpower production and distribution. However, this will require existing methods and standards to be adaptedto the specific applications. Furthermore, when trying to quantify risk, it is of utmost importance to haveaccess to relevant accident and incident information. Such data may in many cases not be readily available,and the utilisation of them will then require specific and long lasting data collection initiatives.In this paper we will present the work that has been undertaken in the HySafe project in developingmethodologies and collecting data for risk management of hydrogen infrastructure. Focus is laid on thedevelopment of risk acceptance criteria and on the demonstration of safety and benefits to the public. Atrustworthy demonstration of safety will have to be based on facts, especially on facts widely known, andemphasis will thus be put on the efforts taken to establish and operate a database containing hydrogenaccident and incident information, which can be utilised in risk assessment of hydrogen applications. Ademonstration of safety will also have to include a demonstration of risk control measures, and the paper willalso present work carried out on safety distances and ignition source control. 2