Sustainability and safety of energy vectors and clean energy value chains

The Green Deal sets the target of climate neutrality in Europe by 2050. Ambitious middle term goals were also defined by the RePowerEU plan. Hydrogen infrastructure plays a key role in this framework. Other energy vectors are also considered for decarbonization of industrial sectors and long-range mobility. However, the rapid implementation of hubs for hydrogen and energy vectors production and distribution networks requires that risks are appropriately identified, understood, assessed and governed, also addressing several risk trade-offs, balancing environmental and safety concerns.

The activities carried out in this research area are aimed at:

• Experimental assessment and modelling of the performance of multilayer insulation materials for thermal insulation of liquid hydrogen tanks when exposed to external fires
• Asset integrity assessment and CFD modelling of temperature and pressure in full-scale hydrogen cryogenic tanks exposed to external fires in specific accident scenarios
• Safety and Sustainability Key Performance Indicators addressing the assessment of energy vector value chains
• Analysis of burden shift and risk trade-off among alternative value chains (compressed and liquefied hydrogen, ammonia, etc.) for energy supply in mobility applications (ships, buses, etc.)
• Comparison of risk and safety performance among conventional networks for energy distributions and alternative concepts based on energy vectors
• Improved modelling and simulation of accident scenarios involving hydrogen release, focusing on jet fires and liquid hydrogen release and vaporization

Research and Industrial Projects on this topic address:

• Pre-normative research on safety issues in liquid hydrogen handling (FCH-JU, EC HE, 2023-2025)
• NEST: Network 4 Energy Sustainable Transition (PNRR PE02, 2022 – 2025)
• Hazard identification and risk assessment of hydrogen-natural gas blending systems (Emerson, 2021-2023)