Hydrogen Safety: From Policies to Plans to Practices

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Hydrogen SafetyFrom Policies to Plans to
Practices

• Steven C. Weiner, Richard Kallman,
• Antonio Ruiz and Jesse Schneider
• presented to the
• International Conference on Hydrogen Safety
• Pisa, Italy
• September 9, 2005

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Hydrogen Safety
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The Context for Safety and the Hydrogen Economy

• Hydrogen use has enjoyed a notable safety record.
• Introduction of hydrogen as a commercial energy
  carrier is a whole new ballgame.
• Safety with hydrogen is as important now if not
  more so than when the hydrogen economy becomes a
  reality.
• Public trust can be a fragile commodity.
• Catastrophic accidents may delay or even preclude
  hydrogens intended implementation.

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Hydrogen Safety Program Goal

• Develop and implement the practices and
  procedures that will ensure safety in the
  operation, handling, and use of hydrogen and
  hydrogen systems for all DOE projects and to
  utilize these practices and lessons learned to
  promote the safe use of hydrogen throughout the
  emerging hydrogen economy

Ref HFCIT Multi-Year Program Plan, Nov 15, 2004
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Hydrogen Safety Review PanelKey Objectives

• Provide expertise and guidance to the DOE and
  assist with identifying areas of additional
  research, learnings and best practices.
• Integrate safety planning into all DOE
  project-funding procurements to ensure that all
  projects address and incorporate hydrogen safety
  requirements.
• Provide input for a handbook of Best Management
  Practices for Safety (2007)

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Hydrogen Safety Review Panel
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An Overview of Panel Initiatives

• Project Safety Plans
• Guidance for Safety Aspects of Proposed Hydrogen
  Projects
• Provide review and comment
• Safety Reviews Telephone Interviews and Site
  Visits
• Share and discuss learnings and new insights that
  bear on safety
• Address project-specific safety issues
• Identify project-specific findings that can have
  a broader benefit in the DOE program
• Project Safety Questionnaires

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Identifying and AnalyzingSafety Vulnerabilities

• The right team, the right leader, the right
  techniques
• Documentation with sufficient detail
• Time
• Pitfalls
• Lack of understanding by management of the time
  commitment needed to produce a successful study
• Lack of experience by the team leader
• Use of outdated documents
• Failure to address all aspects of operation
• Failure to consider existing safeguards

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Safety Plan Expectations

• Does the plan provide a good sense of how the
  policies and procedures of the organization are
  implemented down to the project and staff levels
  for the specific project?
• Does the plan reflect the key areas of sound and
  thoughtful identification and analysis of safety
  vulnerabilities, risk mitigation and
  communications?
• Does the plan reflect a desired nature that it be
  a living document and therefore, discuss safety
  considerations relevant to the course of the
  project, e.g. management of change, dissemination
  of learnings, etc.?

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Site Visit TemplateSafety Planning and QA

• Safety Vulnerabilities
• How do you assess the safety risks that are/will
  be present during the implementation of your
  project? Do you use established qualitative or
  quantitative measures or one(s) of your own
  design?
• Risk Mitigation
• What approaches and methodologies are used to
  reduce the identified risks?
• Communications
• How are safety reviews conducted during the
  design, development and operating phases of the
  project? How are safety incidents and
  near-misses documented and reported and the
  resulting lessons learned shared?

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Observations and Learnings

• Equipment Maintenance and Sensor Calibration
• Management of Change
• Safety Event Reporting

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Safety Event ReportingIncidents and Near-Misses

• An incident is an event that results in
• a lost-time accident and/or injury to personnel,
• damage and/or unplanned downtime for equipment,
  facilities or property,
• impact to the public or environment,
• any hydrogen release that unintentionally ignites
  or is sufficient to sustain a flame if ignited,
• any hydrogen release which accumulates above the
  lower flammability limits within an enclosed
  space.
• A near-miss is an event that under slightly
  different circumstances could have become an
  incident.

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Summary

• Identification and analysis of safety
  vulnerabilities, risk mitigation, and
  communications are critical topics.
• A safety plan should be a living document.
• A safety plan is a tool that should be utilized
  to make sure overall safety practices are in
  order and that safety is a priority.

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Hydrogen Safety
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Acknowledging.

• U.S. Department of Energys Hydrogen, Fuel Cells
  and Infrastructure Technologies Program Office
• Steven Chalk, Program Manager
• Pat Davis, Manager, Safety, Codes and Standards
• My co-authors
• International Conference on Hydrogen Safety