The most common means to warm liquid or cold gaseous hydrogen is the use of ambient air vaporizers using ambient atmospheric. Other means can be through the use of electric heat or process waste heat.  

Typically, the inner vessel material used is 304 SS and the outer vessel is a combination of 304 SS and carbon steel depending on location. 316 SS or 316L material can be used, but due to higher cost and lower strength, are typically only used for higher purity systems. Nearly all tanks manufactured today use various forms of vacuum jacketed multilayer insulation for best performance. Older…

Catalytic recombiners are effective at preventing flammable hydrogen mixtures and also sometimes useful to monitor hydrogen concentrations through heat evolution when an oxidizer is present. Careful considerations must be made when integrating these elements into a design, so that they do not become a source ignition (and/or flame arrestors prevent propagation of a flame front) and the…

The end use of hydrogen usually drives the cleaning for initial construction. 

1. When the hydrogen is used for combustion and many industrial applications, normal care during construction and leak testing is usually adequate. 
2. When the hydrogen needs to be very pure, as is the case for PEM fuel cell applications, more…

The vent system should be designed for the temperature at which it operates (ambient for GH2 and Cryogenic for LH2). The outlet of the vent system should be designed for a fire to ensure the mechanical integrity of the vent system. 

The supports should also be designed for these temperatures and the associated expansion and contraction. 

It should be ensured that moisture…

Vent stacks and building ventilation systems are different and should be analyzed/designed differently. NFPA 2 has different location requirements for vent stack and ventilation system outlets. There are code requirements for elevation, distances from exposures, and between exposures. 

There are no specific regulatory or code requirements for vent system separation distances. These…

The ASME BPV Code, and other Codes by reference, require less than back pressure of 10% of device set pressure from the release flowrate for proper operation of reclosing relief devices such as relief valves. Backpressure from non-reclosing or non-ASME devices may be higher so an analysis is required. It’s not enough to assume the vent system need only be designed for 10% of the set pressure.…

The SRV orientation is critical for many reasons. Many of these are:

1. Manufacturer recommendations – Manufacturers may require a certain orientation based on the internal design.
2. To ensure no back pressure changes the setpoint beyond allowable design
3. To ensure moisture does not enter the relief device. This is critical for the operation for LH2 and also for GH2 (in…

Yes, there are differences due to the differences in the fluid properties. We’re not sure what is meant by blowdown. If this means that should the gases be vented to a vent stack, possibly, but for certain these need to be vented to a safe location.

Relief device sizing for liquid hydrogen tanks follow recognized standards such as CGA S1.3. The sizing criteria include a worst-case scenario of an engulfing fire with loss of vacuum integrity.

LH2 tanks are unlikely to BLEVE due to the vacuum insulation outer jacket (usually carbon or stainless steel) preventing direct impingement of fire onto the main pressure vessel, as well as the…