Considerations on Incident Databases to support the safe Introduction of Hydrogen in the Energy Sector and new Applications

Kurzfassung

Although hydrogen has been used in large quantities in the chemical industry for decades, the safe introduction of hydrogen technologies in the energy sector poses a challenge for various stakeholders from industry, end users and regulatory authorities. In this context, standards and regulations covering the different areas of hydrogen production, distribution, storage and use are of particular importance. As part of the German Standardization Roadmap for Hydrogen Technologies, the existing regulations for hydrogen technologies were therefore recently compiled and examined for possible gaps. In addition to the role of comprehensive regulations, the question arises of how incident databases with information on hydrogen-related incidents and accidents could ensure on a global level that accidents and undesirable events in hydrogen applications are not repeated. Furthermore, it was analysed how the knowledge about the root causes of undesired events can be provided to the interested parties in the most effective way. For this purpose, the major stakeholder groups and their usage perspective were identified. The current status of incident databases for hydrogen applications, but also for other industrial sectors, was analysed. The most effective systems in use were found at national and European gas pipeline operators. These systems have been in use for more than four decades and have proven to be very successful. Building on these systems and further considerations, the main requirements for a “perfect” database are formulated. These include the establishment of distributed and networked database structures that could be used by industry, users and authorities alike. Finally, an outlook on approaches for corresponding further projects is presented.