Safety of cryogenic and liquefied fuels storage and transportation

Liquefied fuels play an important role in the energy industry. Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and Natural Gas (LNG) are expected to have an important role in the energy transition framework. Green hydrogen and ammonia will be the key players in the future sustainable energy system. The production, storage, and transportation capacity of such fuels is increasing fast and will foreseeably keep growing in the near future. This comes along with the need for innovative technologies, reliable design criteria and improved safety assessment tools to address the safety and integrity of the clean and/or green fuels value chains.

The activities carried out in this research area include:

• the experimental characterization of super-insulation materials under fire exposure conditions
• the development of numerical models for the simulation of the performance of super-insulation materials in fire scenarios
• the development of computational fluid dynamic (CFD) and lumped models for the analysis of the thermo-hydraulic response of cryogenic tanks under fire exposure
• the inherent safety assessment of processes and equipment involved in the value chain of liquefied fuels
• the consequences analysis of accidental releases of liquefied fuels from storage and transportation units

Research and Industrial projects on this topic address:

• ELVHYS - Enhancing safety of liquid and vaporised hydrogen transfer technologies in public areas for mobile applications project – funded by the European Commission under the Clean Hydrogen Partnership, project n. 101101381
• NICOLHy - Novel Insulation Concepts For LH2 Storage - funded by the European Commission under the Clean Hydrogen Partnership call HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2023-02-03