Net Zero Safety & Ignition Risk
Abstract
National Gas Transmission (NGT) owns and operates the UK’s extensive National Transmission System (NTS) which spans over 7,600 kilometres and plays a vital role in delivering energy security and supporting decarbonisation initiatives. NGT has made a commitment to develop plans to transition some of the NTS to blended hydrogen operation as part of the Government’s Net Zero targets. A programme called Project Union is being developed to spearhead the NTS conversion strategy as part of the decarbonisation effort. This will further aid the net-zero target by eliminating emissions generated from managing and operating the transmission system. The Gas Distribution Networks (GDNs) and NGT have been making strides in the last decade through research, physical testing, etc to qualify hydrogen as a fuel within the NTS.
Hydrogen is a promising alternative fuel due to its potential to significantly reduce greenhouse emissions; however, its properties present unique safety challenges. It has a much lower ignition energy (0.016mJ) when compared to Natural Gas, making it more susceptible to ignition from a variety of sources, along with much more devastating effects if ignition occurs.
An area of consideration for safe hydrogen operation is the ignition risk of hydrogen. This risk will span daily operations, maintenance tasks, compression and transport etc. Ignition risk needs to be meticulously investigated to ensure National Gas are aware of all the possible ignition mechanisms, sources, likelihood, safeguards and mitigations etc. to ensure safe utilisation of hydrogen on the network.
This work will provide a comprehensive understanding of hydrogen ignition risks on the network with safeguards and mitigations to bring the risk of ignition into the ‘Tolerable if ALARP’ or ‘Broadly Acceptable’ levels.
