VALVE MAGAZINE Summer 2024

HYDROGEN GENERATION

Source: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Group

Compressed Gas Association represents member companies across industry and works with regulators, code developers and international standards bodies on technical guidance. Their Safe Hydrogen Project has mapped all its guidelines and regulations to date that are designed to ensure the safe storage, handling and transport of hydrogen. Types of Hydrogen

fying the o -gas while the other regenerates. High purity hydrogen (above . ) can be produced by PSA units according to Emerson. Once hydrogen is extracted, it is often liqui ed for trans portation at temperatures as low as - °F (- °C). At this extremely low temperature, embrittlement becomes a concern, with materials breaking down and cracking and allowing the hydrogen to escape, creating a source of fugitive emission. EPRI, the Electric Power Research Institute, is currently working with a number of utilities around the world on a variety of hydrogen studies and demon stration systems to test the process from end to end. So far, they have found areas within gas turbine combustion systems that may need to be adjusted for hydrogen service are: fuel nozzles; coatings, based on new ame structures; liner and tran sition piece length and diameter, based on hydrogen ame speed; and combustor pressure drops, which may require changes to account for updated performance and turbine cooling requirements. Testing and Certification of Components As would be expected, a variety of industry groups and stan dards organizations are developing new tests or modifying existing ones for components used in hydrogen service, transport and storage. Among these groups are ASME, MSS’s Committee for Severe and Special Service Valves, including cryogenic tests and new standards regarding hydro uoric acid service. These standards and recommendations are currently in committee and under testing and review. The

There are a number of di erent ways to describe and de ne the types of hydrogen being generated today. Using colors to denote the process used to generate the nal hydrogen fuel, industry has settled on at least a few colors – green, blue and gray – but other colors are being described, too. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has created a color wheel, showing the expanding nature of the hydrogen color assignments, as well as a description of how each “color” is created. The Path Forward Even with all that still needs to be learned

With a stated goal of decarbonizing the U.S. electrical grid by 2035, at today’s rate we’ll need 3x the capacity of 2020.

about moving our economy one run on hydrogen as a replacement for fossil fuels, there is a lot that is already known and technology that has been developed and is being proven out today. Companies like Modern Hydrogen are seeking customers to install their pyrolysis technology to move toward creating their own energy plants run on clean fuel. Emerson and Flowserve are two large valve manufacturers, among other products, that have dedicated enormous resources to testing existing components and developing new ones that will be required for hydrogen service to be widely adopted. Valve Magazine and the VMA will continue to provide content on these developments to readers, both online and in the printed magazine.

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SUMMER 2024

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