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NIST Building Facility for Evaluating Hydrogen Pipeline Tests, Materials, Properties and Standards
24 January 2008
A new laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will evaluate tests, materials, mechanical properties and standards for hydrogen pipelines.
Long-term exposure to hydrogen can embrittle existing pipelines, increasing the potential for dangerous failures. NIST researchers will use the hydrogen laboratory to develop long-term service tests and apply them to study pipeline materials and mechanical effects. NIST is coordinating its research and safety plans with other national laboratories and industry groups that are working with hydrogen.
Construction is just beginning on the 750-square-foot laboratory on the site of a former hydrogen test facility at the NIST campus in Boulder, Colo. The laboratory—including a control room in a separate, existing building—is expected to be operational by mid-2008.
Experiments will involve immersing pipeline materials in pressurized hydrogen gas contained in steel alloy test chambers. The largest of these—about the size of a small automobile gas tank—will be the nation’s biggest hydrogen test chamber. Studies will be conducted using hydraulic machines to test mechanical fatigue, large frames for applying pressure to pipeline materials and equipment for testing properties such as tensile and residual strength and fracture toughness.
Tom Siewert, the NIST metallurgist who will manage the new laboratory, says the initial research will involve collecting fatigue and fracture data for existing pipelines as a baseline and conducting “round robin” exercises to assess the consistency of tests among various hydrogen laboratories. In the future, the focus will expand to new pipeline materials such as composites.
To help develop the research program, NIST recently held a workshop involving 46 participants representing pipeline owners, industry and standards organizations, academic researchers, national laboratories and government agencies. Working groups identified priority needs in materials; test techniques and methods; and codes, standards and safety.
The US Department of Energy is supporting the development of hydrogen delivery technologies to enable the introduction and long-term viability of hydrogen as an energy carrier for transportation and stationary power. The scope of the delivery projects is from the end point of central or distributed production to and including the dispenser at a refueling station or stationary power site.
This includes pipelines and tube trailers for gaseous hydrogen (GH2); trucks for liquefied hydrogen (LH2); and hydrogen carriers, both liquid and solid.
Examples of liquid carriers are ethanol, methanol bio-oils and ammonia that would be reformed, or liquid hydrocarbons that would be catalytically dehydrogenated at a station or on a vehicle and then returned to a central plant or terminal for re-hydriding.
Examples of solid carriers include metal hydrides; nanostructured materials; and flowable powders, slurries and bricks.
Currently, GH2 tube trailers carry about 340 kg of hydrogen at around 2,650 psi. LH2 trucks carry around 3,900 kg of hydrogen. Cost, not including refueling site operations for trucks ranges from $4 to $12/kg. The US also has about 630 miles of hydrogen pipeline, transporting hydrogen for industrial use at around 1,000 psi at a cost of less than $2 per kilogram.
The DOE’s cost target for pipeline hydrogen delivery is less than $1.00 per kilogram by 2017. Other 2017 targets are $490k/mile capital cost for transmission pipelines; $190k/mile capital cost for distribution pipelines, high reliability (embrittlement); and low hydrogen permeation.
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January 24, 2008 in Hydrogen, Infrastructure | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
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Comments
I was struck by the size, 750 sq.ft? of the lab. Even with a separate control room that seemed minute.
But then I noticed the test cells were quite small. The largest is described as the size of a small car gasoline tank.
Not sure who made this press release. It is really about two topics, the new NIST lab, and somewhat related DOE hydrogen goals.
I don't see the point of mentioning what DOE would like someday, maybe by 2017, in a story about what NIST will be doing beginning this year.
Posted by: K | Jan 24, 2008 11:16:01 AM
They tried to make a movie at the Center for Disease Control more than 10 years ago and gave up because the facilities were so run down, that they figured no one would believe that was the CDC.
We would like to believe that all of these centers are modern and large. Maybe the DOD, DOE, FBI, CIA and others get lots of money for facilities, but when it comes to other things...not so much.
I always figured that the National Science Foundation (NSF) initials stood for Non Sufficient Funds, because they were always so underfunded. It is about time that we got our priorities straight.
Posted by: sjc | Jan 24, 2008 12:48:11 PM
Whay nist is doing is ALL about doe targets.
People.. mostly busg hating kneegerk loons have been forgetting all along that h2 is far far bigger then cars. This is about the hydrohem infrastructre needed by the us for EVERYTJING that will need it and about improving the basic systems it uses to make it far more efficient and cheap and safer to operate.
Even if a car never ever used h2 the miles of h2 pipe and trucks csrryin it would still grow massively... and concidering how bloody big it already manged to get under our noses thats a bnig freaking deal.
Posted by: wintermane | Jan 24, 2008 12:52:37 PM
