Health and Safety Requirements and Hydrogen

Hydrogen production by methane-steam formation posses great challenges of hundreds of hazards related to its employees, as well, as machineries. The paper will try to identify and analyze different hazards and risks that are associated with the production of hydrogen element through methane steam formation. Moreover, the paper will present implications and measures for the safety of the machineries, as well as, employees working in these production facilities.

In the methane storage, it has been observed that the storage tank often breaks up and cracks can be observed in the tank, which may expose methane steam resulting in the environmental risk. In this regard, an effective step that can overcome this problem is the designing of drainage systems can tolerate total capacity of the tank, which may reduce the leftover in the environment. Sometimes, storage tank of the methane catches up fire, which is a very dangerous hazard for the employees that are working in the surrounding environment, as well as, for the machineries and equipments that are built at the location.

In this regard, designing of the tank should be created in such a way that fire exposure may be tolerated for at least two hours, which may allow the rescue and fire brigade services to overcome the fire problem. (NRC, pp. 40-42, 2003) Secondly, such production facilities should be employed with flame arrestor that may help in identifying flame at the beginning. Moreover, storage tanks must have double walls, which may result in avoidance of their cracking, as well as, avoid the risks of any fire in the tank.

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Thirdly, MSR Unit during the production of hydrogen with the help of methane steam forming confronts leakage of methane or water that reacts with the hot oil system built in the vaporizer. In the result, materials and equipments are damaged with the confrontation of methane with the hot oil, which may result in heavy losses of the equipments, and burning risks for the employees. In this regard, quantity of the water, as well as, methane should be checked at regular intervals. In addition, quality of these compounds should also be verified by the experts that may help in the reduction of such risk during the production of hydrogen.

Lastly, atmosphere confronts leakage of different gases like H2, CO, CO2, etc. during the production of hydrogen, which may result in the exposure of toxicity with the employees and workers in the installation facilities. Some of the major hazards of these gases leakage are fire, burning, environmental hazards, health risks, etc. In this regard, the abovementioned is one of the most dangerous hazards that are linked with the production of hydrogen. In extreme cases, such leakages end up in explosions that may cause human lives. Such extreme cases have been noted in the plants that are built under a container.

Therefore, it should be noted that segmentation valve should be built in isolation, and away from the other processes of the hydrogen production. Different equipments should be built for the detection of gases leakage, especially the CO leakage that plays the major role in the adverse effects. Furthermore, depressurization process should be performed at a faster pace, which may take less time, and result in the less risks. (ICE, pp. 23-25, 2006) During the hydrogen production by the reformation of methane, it has been observed that reformers are often exposed with ruptures due to the development of a hotspot in the tubes of reformers.

One of the major reasons of development of a hotspot is the catalyst of reformer that is deactivated due to the poisoning by methane element. Such ruptures and breakages result in the damages of equipments, materials, and the environment. Such breakage is often observed in the production unit of such procedure. After the detailed analysis of safety requirements in such process, it has been observed that supplier of the methane should be provided with complete requirements of the compound in terms of its quality.

Secondly, upstream reformer should be pre-reformed in this production unit, which may result in the reduction of chances of development of any hotspots in the reformers. (Johansson, pp. 56-58, 1993) Another risk that has been associated with the production of hydrogen with the methane steam formation is the leakage of flammable gases that causes human lives, as well as, damages of the equipments in the facilities. Such hazards become extreme when the plant is manufactured in the container, which results in the more adverse effects.

In this regard, safety-related bodies have advised that equipments for the detection of gas leakages should be installed at the production plant. Such equipments help in the opening of ventilations during emergencies, as well as, close the segmentation valves automatically. Thus, these detection products play a crucial role in saving human lives and damage losses of the machineries. Secondly, it should be noted that segmentation valves are built outside the container, in order to acquire ventilation naturally, as it has been observed that the valves built inside the container are more vulnerable to the abovementioned hazards. Fletcher, pp. 68-70, 1998) Moreover, installation area should be cordoned off at the time of unloading of the methane from the truck, and only required personnel should stay at the location, which may result in the risk of less number of human lives. Furthermore, external impact can be avoided by the accurate designing of filling hose, which may result in the adverse results. In addition, it should be taken into consideration that rupture valves should be checked on a regular basis. It should be noted that a warning system in case of any exposure should be evaluated by the production facilities at regular intervals.

All these steps and measures can result in the reduction and elimination of hazards and risks that are associated with the production of hydrogen with the utilization of methane compound. During the production of hydrogen with the utilization of methane steam formation, the experiments have shown that when the storage tank is filled with methane, toxic heavy gas is exposed in the surroundings due to leak in the filling hose of methane compound. This leakage does not occur every time, but it poses great hazards for the employees working in this processing unit.

It has been observed that employees working around these installations often end up in adverse health, and awful death in extreme cases. In this regard, some of the measures that can be taken for avoiding this hazard during the compound filling from the truck are that pressurized methane compound should be avoided at the time of its transportation, and refrigerated liquefied compound should be used that may poses less risk of any toxic exposure in the surroundings. (Vincoli, pp. 44-47, 1997) Sometimes, faults of valves or humans effects the ruptures in the pipe due to the pressure explosion during the production.

Such effects results in the damages of equipments, as well as, workers that are employed in the surroundings. In this regard, appropriate material should be selected for the manufacturing of production plant, which may reduce the risks. Secondly, designing of the steam and cooler should be improved with the help of detailed analysis. Moreover, requirements of control system should be provided to the suppliers in details according to the regulations that may help in the effective production of hydrogen with fewer chances of hazardous risks. (OECD Nuclear Energy Agency, pp. 55-57, 2001) Conclusion

Conclusively, significant hazards and risks associated with the production of hydrogen by the utilization of methane steam formation have been identified, discussed, and analyzed in this paper. In addition, safety requirements that should be imposed against the discussed hazards have been provided in the paper. More information can be attained by performing detailed analysis of these risks. Some of the common hazards that have been noted in the hydrogen production through methane steam formation are gas leakages due to high pressures and different ruptures in the equipments and machineries.

In this regard, manufacturers of the hydrogen-producing machineries confront great challenges in terms of the discussed hazards in this paper. Lastly, further research is required in the subject that may facilitate the hydrogen producers in overcoming and reduction of the hazards and risks associated with the production of hydrogen. It is hoped that the paper will be beneficial for students, teachers, and professionals in the better understanding of hazards associated with the hydrogen production through methane steam formation, as well as, safety requirements and implications that have been advised by the safety-related organizations.

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