Hydrogen has been safely stored, transported and used across industries over many decades. Just like natural gas, LPG and petrol, hydrogen safety is about understanding how the gas behaves and how to handle it. The good news is hydrogen has been well studied and there is already significant evidence on safe handling. Let’s take a closer look at this.
The safe handling of hydrogen:
- Because it’s much lighter than air, hydrogen dissipates quickly when released, allowing for relatively rapid dispersion of the fuel in case of a leak, which reduces the risk of ignition or fire. Hydrogen is also non-toxic.
- Research indicates that hydrogen leaks at the same rate as natural gas so it’s important to have appropriate safety procedures and sensitive leak detection systems. Similar to those used to detect natural gas leaks today.
- Hydrogen is a very small molecule and at very high pressures can cause embrittlement of some metals, so storage equipment needs to be appropriately designed for the safe use of the gas.
Gas networks have been running safely in New Zealand for almost 50 years. Firstgas Group reliably transports natural gas across the North Island everyday and we are confident we can adapt to the safety requirements of hydrogen gas in the future.