Development Challenges for Hydrogen Test Cell Facility Requirements and Safety Constraints

The globe moving towards setting up targets for greenhouse gas emissions considering short term and long-term strategies, efforts in ICE domain has been accelerating to find an alternative way and H₂ is among one of them leading! H₂ as fuel is known to be clean source of energy for several years. Recent advancements in fuel cell and Internal Combustion engine technologies are making use of H₂ as fuel more feasible for end application for mobility and industrial power generation segment. This paper helps understand the basic properties of Hydrogen which are critical for deriving safety aspects to be considered while designing an engine test cell to handle H₂ as fuel. Also it summarizes the survey of relevant reference standards to be considered while designing and developing an H₂ engine test cell. It elaborates typical test cell facilities and utilities to give an idea about the critical sub-systems required for an engine test cell. The hydrogen storage design considerations, its handling from storage till engine test cell are studied and summarized. Also, the critical sub-systems which are required for safe handling of H₂ as fuel inside the engine test cell are discussed and elaborated. Various reference standard guidance is summarized for safety features and considerations like blow out panels, ATEX considerations etc. Few critical risks to be considered while developing the safety controls are discussed. The operational and human safety and its control are discussed in detail. It also provides information on protection systems to be considered for hydrogen leakage detection and its controls. In summary it compares the infrastructure and test cell utilities required for a typical Diesel Vs H₂ ICE test cell.