Sandia founding member of Center for Hydrogen Safety

Sandia is a founding member of the Center for Hydrogen Safety (CHS), a global-oriented nonprofit dedicated to promoting hydrogen safety and best practices worldwide. (Photo courtesy of CHS)

On April 2, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), in partnership with the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), officially launched the Center for Hydrogen Safety (CHS). CHS is a global, nonprofit center focused on safety and best practices for the use of hydrogen in the global energy transition.

Providing exceptional expertise in hydrogen

As a founding member of CHS, Sandia collaborates with members from many countries to identify innovative tools, resources, and information concerning both traditional hydrogen applications and hydrogen as a fuel source.

Sandia lends exceptional expertise by offering support to both CHS and the Hydrogen Safety Panel (HSP). Chris LaFleur, program lead for Hydrogen Safety, Codes, and Standards at Sandia, serves on HSP. Nick Barilo, manager of the Hydrogen Safety Program at PNNL, one of Sandia’s sister DOE labs, will lead CHS.

The new CHS stems from a decade-long partnership between the DOE’s Fuel Cell Technologies Office and HSP. CHS will enable global collaboration; leverage expertise from HSP; and offer a long-term, sustainable hydrogen safety resource to stakeholders for decades to come.

Sharing hydrogen safety knowledge with a wider audience

“It is exciting that AIChE has now partnered with HSP to form CHS because AIChE has a far-reaching platform that allows for social and community awareness surrounding hydrogen safety,” Chris said.

Currently, HSP reviews DOE research projects focusing on hydrogen technology development. The new CHS allows HSP to review research, products, and facilities from a diverse set of fields and funding, as well as DOE research and projects.

In addition to HSP review, the new center offers access to forums regarding Sandia’s Hydrogen Risk Assessment Model (HyRAM). HyRAM is a software toolkit that uses deterministic and probabilistic models to quantify accident scenarios, predict physical effects, and define hydrogen hazard impacts on structures and people using hydrogen behavior physics and flame properties.

“We can now share Sandia’s hydrogen safety knowledge with a lot of people, and that is exciting,” Chris said.

With the help of founding members like Sandia, CHS will provide access to educational products, safety resources, hydrogen safety guidelines, conferences, accredited first-responder training, and safety evaluation by HSP.

“Hydrogen safety has come a long way in the last century,” Chris said, “Through resources such as CHS and HSP, we can assure that systems are designed safely and effectively.”

To learn more about CHS, click here.