Furthermore, it will serve as feedstock for climate-neutral industrial processes. In the process industry safety aspects of fossil-based hydrogen production is well-known, but there is limited experience with large-scale water electrolysis. The Institute for Sustainable Process Technology (ISPT) and the consortium partners HyCC, Ørsted, Shell, Yara, DNV, Royal HaskoningDHV and TNO initiated a new project: Green Hydrogen Inherent Safety Practices on large industrial scale. This project will increase awareness of safety for large industrial scale water electrolysis plants. After all, industry, authorities, and society want zero incidents.
The knowledge-gap
Today electrolyser suppliers, operators, and owners have limited operating experience with safety aspects related to large scale water electrolysis installations. Only small-scale installations exist whereas these large-scale installations are becoming reality soon. Therefore, all partners wish to further advance all related safety aspects and develop a uniform safety approach for large-scale water electrolysis plants. One question is, for example, how to objectively assess scenarios with exceptionally low probability and high potential consequences (black swans) and how to determine cost-effective safety measures to address these. Therefore, there is a need to further develop joint safety practices and guidelines based on credible scenarios for large-scale plants. It is also important to communicate about safety risks transparently.