National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Research

Safety

Hydrogen has a long history of safe use in the chemical and aerospace industries. An understanding of hydrogen properties, proper safety precautions, and established rules, regulations and standards are the keys to this successful track record. NREL is supporting DOE's goal to 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-funded projects.

To facilitate hydrogen safety, an important research area is the development of hydrogen sensors to detect leaks and monitor gas purity. NREL researchers are developing a fiber-optic sensor configuration that is inherently safe and resistant to electromagnetic interference. In addition to developing the sensor itself, NREL researchers are developing protective and self-cleaning overlayer coatings for the sensor. NREL is also involved in assessing sensor requirements and design options for innovative hydrogen sensor technologies and the feasibility of using analytic techniques for remote sensing of hydrogen.

Other opportunities for sensor development include the development of wide-area visible hydrogen sensors, assess low-cost sensor arrays, specifically addressing the transfer of instrument calibration between devices and the stability of devices over time. NREL will also explore the application of gettering polymer films for coating onto pipe and joined surfaces, gettering gasket materials based on Teflon composite materials, and the incorporation of sensor chemicals into the coating and gasket materials.

Presentations and Publications

The following documents are available as Adobe Acrobat PDFs. Download Adobe Reader.

Contact: Carl Rivkin 303-275-3839