A analysis venture on the College of Aberdeen is investigating new supplies and strategies for hydrogen transportation and storage, repurposing current property and expertise from the North Sea. It should help and enhance inexperienced power provide throughout the UK. Draeger Security UK is concerned within the venture, and likewise gives additional element right here concerning the goals of the initiative.
The MHYSTIC (New Supplies and Strategies for Hydrogen Transportation and Storage: Repurposing the Financial Way forward for the North Sea) venture is being led by consultants on the College of Aberdeen, and attracts upon chemical, mechanical and supplies engineering, in addition to experience in monetary evaluation in geological settings. It’s is considered one of 10 chosen by the UK-HyRES Flexible Fund which goals to progress expertise for hydrogen and various liquid fuels.
Dräger, which has an workplace in Aberdeen, has labored with the College of Engineering on the College of Aberdeen for the previous 4 years. The following partnership has resulted within the group supporting the College’s analysis into hydrogen and renewable power and offering security data and recommendation to college students, in addition to advising on security expertise, equivalent to fuel detection and monitoring units for brand new hydrogen analysis services.
Practically £3 million has been awarded for the work, enabling “pioneering studies across multiple institutions and disciplines”, says the college. One necessary thread of hydrogen analysis is in respect of security.
“The safety industry has a fundamental role to play in the development of renewable and green energy and it is therefore vital that industry and academia works together to address challenges”, stated Megan Hine, Power Transition Security Lead, Draeger Security UK.
“Not only is the role of safety crucial to ensure public and industry confidence and trust, but there are some elements where the safety risks are not fully known, and as a result we are working very closely with the University of Aberdeen, and our clients, many of whom are at the forefront of the energy transition, to understand and manage these risks and to promote the safe use of green technologies.”
For instance, the analysis undertaken as a part of the MHYSTIC venture will probably be important to check the structural integrity of metal when in touch with hydrogen and to recommend new barrier supplies to scale back hydrogen embrittlement and structural failure in pipelines and vessels. It should additionally consider the usage of present offshore infrastructure for hydrogen functions. Dräger’s function within the venture will probably be to offer fuel detection tools to take leakage measurements which is able to help further, dynamic experiments in small pipeline sections and vessels. It will assist to find out stress losses and evaluate present measurements which is able to in the end predict optimum materials comparisons to minimise hydrogen leakages and embrittlement.
Dr Alfonso Martinez-Felipe, College of Aberdeen and Mission Lead commented: “This project will combine experimental and computational techniques to come up with new models that explain and prevent hydrogen leakage through steels and polymers. Our ambition is to repurpose existing pipelines and instruments in the North Sea for their use in transport of hydrogen and its blends, contributing to circularity and reactivating the renewable energy sector in the region. We are delighted to have Drager as one of our industry partners, who will help us transfer our research findings into innovations and regulations that will establish a safe hydrogen economy in Scotland and the UK”.
Megan Hine added: “Dräger is happy to be partnering with the College of Aberdeen on this venture and to be on the centre of this necessary analysis to play a task in defining the protection parameters for the longer term transportation and storage of hydrogen.
“It is essential that we get safety right in the renewables and green energy sector. We’re firmly of the view that safety does not need to hinder the process, nor the deployment, of the energy transition. Instead, getting the safety elements right from the start, will speed things up, both now and in the long term.”
