• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.161-172
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• 2014

Hydrogen, which can be produced from abundant and widely distributed renewable energy resources, seems to be a promising candidate for solving the concerns for improving energy security, urban air pollution, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The two primary motivating factors for hydrogen economy are fossil fuel supply limitations and concerns about global warming. But the safety issues associated with hydrogen economy need to be investigated and fully understood before being considered as a future energy source. Limited operating experience with hydrogen energy systems in consumer environments is recognised as a significant barrier to the implementation of hydrogen economy. To prevent unnecessary restrictions on emerging codes, standards and local regulations, safety policies based on real hazards should be developed. This article studies briefly the direct impact-distances from hazard events such as hydrogen release and jet fire, and damage levels from hydrogen gas explosion in a confined space. Based on the direct impact-distances indicated in the accident scenarios and consumer environments in Korea, the safety policies, which are related to hydrogen filling station, hydrogen fuel cell car, portable fuel cell, domestic fuel cells, and hydrogen town, are suggested to implement hydrogen economy. To apply the safety policies and overcome the disadvantages of prescriptive risk management, which is setting guidance in great detail to management well known risk but is not covering unidentified risk, hybrid risk management model is also proposed.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.653-660
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• 2022

In liquid hydrogen storage tanks, tank damage or leakage in the surrounding pipes possess a major risk. Since these tanks store huge amounts of the fluid among all the liquid hydrogen process facilities, there is a high risk of leakage-related accidents. Therefore, in this study, we conducted a risk assessment of liquid hydrogen leakage for a grid-type liquid hydrogen storage tank (lattice-type pressure vessel (LPV): 18 m³) that overcame the low space efficiency of the existing pressure vessel shape. Through a commercially developed three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics program, the geometry of the site, where the liquid hydrogen storage tank will be installed, was obtained and simulations of the leakage scenarios for each situation were performed. From the computational flow analysis results, the pool formation behavior in the event of liquid hydrogen leakage was identified, and the resulting damage range was predicted.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.75-86
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• 2024

Hydrogen has been selected as one of the key technologies for reducing CO₂ emissions to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. However, hydrogen safety issues should be fully guaranteed before the commercial and widespread utilization of hydrogen. Here, a bow-tie risk assessment is conducted for the hydrogen fuel supply system in a gas turbine power plant, which can be a mass consumption application of hydrogen. The bow-tie program is utilized for a qualitative risk assessment, allowing the analysis of the causes and consequences according to the stages of accidents. This study proposed an advanced bow-tie method, which includes the barrier criticality matrix and visualized maps of quantitative risk reduction. It is based on evaluating the importance of numerous barriers for the extent of their impact. In addition, it emphasizes the prioritization and concentrated management of high-importance barriers. The radar chart of a bow tie allows the visual comparison of risk levels before/after the application of barriers (safety measures). The risk reduction methods are semi-quantitatively analyzed utilizing the criticality matrix and radar chart, and risk factors from multiple aspects are derived. For establishing a secure hydrogen fuel storage system, the improvements suggested by the bow-tie risk assessment results, such as 'Ergonomic equipment design to prevent human error' and 'Emergency shutdown system,' will enhance the safety level. It attempts to contribute to the development and enhancement of an efficient safety management system by suggesting a method of calculating the importance of barriers based on the bow-tie risk assessment.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.551-564
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• 2021

The use of clean energy based on the hydrogen economy is increasing rapidly due to the greenhouse gas reduction policies and the increase in the need for hydrogen. Currently, South Korea government have been considering a plan to construct hydrogen refueling stations at expressway service area for the purpose of supplying hydrogen vehicles. In the case of a hydrogen refueling stations, a quantitative risk assessment (QRA) must be performed because it includs and uses a high pressurized hydrogen storage tank. In this study, QRA was conducted using societal risk and F-N curve by the consequence assessment (CA) of jet fire and explosion according to the population density, capacity of the high pressurized hydrogen storage tank and frequency assessment (FA) data to the general hydrogen refueling stations systems in expressway service area. In the cases of jet with a leak diameter of 7.16 mm, regardless of expressway service area location, the societal risk was over 1E-04 that was acceptable for as Low As reasonably practicable (ALARP) region (workforce), but unacceptable for ALARP region (public). In the cases of gas explosion, all expressway service area satisfy ALARP region. In the case of the population density is over 0.0727, QRA for constructing the hydrogen refueling stations, must be conducted.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.70-76
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• 2020

In this study, we suggested the direction to lower the risk by analyzing the risk factors for each process for the hydrogen refueling station to be installed in Chungju. HyRAM, one of the quantitative risk assessment tools for hydrogen gas, was used to analyze the hazards. By evaluating the frequency of accidents and consequences for each process, the most dangerous processes and accident factors were presented, and the risk mitigation factors were synthesized. Hydrogen refueling stations are currently in the global infrastructure expansion period, and the lack of accident data could be an alternative to this risk assessment and is expected to be used as a reference for the future expansion of hydrogen refueling stations.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.505-513
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• 2023

Hydrogen infrastructure is expanding. High-capacity hydrogen refueling stations offer advantages because they can refuel a variety of light and heavy-duty vehicles, and multi-port refueling technology is developing to reduce charging time for heavy-duty vehicles. In this study, we suggest directions to lower the risk by analyzing the risk factors for each process involved in the installation of a high-capacity multi-port hydrogen refueling station in Changwon city. We conducted both qualitative and quantitative risk assessments of the equipment to evaluate the station. A hazard and operability study was performed for qualitative risk assessment, and PHAST/SAFETI were used for quantitative risk assessment. Quantitative risk assessment was used to calculate the consequence analysis of the facility to ensure secure design prior to station development and to predict individual and societal risks in various scenarios. As a result, the station's risk level was determined to be as low as reasonably practicable.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.76-85
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• 2023

Demand for hydrogen as a renewable energy resource is increasing. However, unlike conventional fossil fuels, hydrogen requires a dedicated refueling station for fuel supply. A risk assessment of hydrogen refueling stations must be undertaken to secure the infrastructure. Therefore, in this study, a risk assessment for hydrogen refueling stations was conducted through both qualitative and quantitative risk assessments. For the qualitative evaluation, the hydrogen dispenser module was evaluated as two nodes using the hazard and operability (HAZOP) analysis. The risk due to filter clogging and high-pressure accidents was evaluated to be high according to the criticality estimation matrix. For the quantitative risk assessment, the Hydrogen Korea Risk Assessment Module (Hy-KoRAM) was used to indicate the shape of the fire and the range of damage impact, and to evaluate the individual and social risks. The individual risk level was determined of to be as low as reasonably practicable (ALARP). Additional safety measures proposed include placing the hydrogen refueling station about 100m away from public facilities. The social risk level was derived as 1E-04/year, with a frequency of approximately 10 deaths, falling within the ALARP range. As a result of the qualitative and quantitative risk assessments, additional safety measures for the process and a safety improvement plan are proposed through the establishment of a restricted area near the hydrogen refueling station.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.60 no.6
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• pp.433-440
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• 2023

This study aims to establish safety zones for bunkering operations of hydrogen propulsion ships in coastal areas through risk assessment and evaluate their validity. Using a 350 kW-class ferry operating in Busan Port as the subject of analysis, with quantitative risk assessment based on accident consequence and frequency analysis, along with a social risk assessment considering population density. The results of the risk assessment indicate that all scenarios were within acceptable risk criteria and ALARP region. The most critical accident scenarios involve complete hose rupture during bunkering, resulting in jet flames (Frequency: 2.76E-06, Fatalities: 9.81) and vapor cloud explosions (Frequency: 1.33E-08, Fatalities: 14.24). For the recommended safety zone criteria in the 6% hose cross-sectional area leakage scenario, It could be appropriate criteria considering overall risk level and safety zones criteria for hydrogen vehicle refueling stations. This research contributes to establishing safety zone for bunkering operations of hydrogen propulsion ships through risk assessment and provides valuable technical guidelines.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2015

After the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (NPP) accident, new regulatory requirements were enforced in July 2013 and a backfit was required for all existing nuclear power plants. It is required to take measures to prevent severe accidents and mitigate their radiological consequences. The Regulatory Standard and Research Department, Secretariat of Nuclear Regulation Authority (S/NRA/R) has been conducting numerical studies and experimental studies on relevant severe accident phenomena and countermeasures. This article highlights fission product (FP) release and hydrogen risk as two major areas. Relevant activities in the S/NRA/R are briefly introduced, as follows: 1. For FP release: Identifying the source terms and leak mechanisms is a key issue from the viewpoint of understanding the progression of accident phenomena and planning effective countermeasures that take into account vulnerabilities of containment under severe accident conditions. To resolve these issues, the activities focus on wet well venting, pool scrubbing, iodine chemistry (in-vessel and ex-vessel), containment failure mode, and treatment of radioactive liquid effluent. 2. For hydrogen risk: because of three incidents of hydrogen explosion in reactor buildings, a comprehensive reinforcement of the hydrogen risk management has been a high priority topic. Therefore, the activities in evaluation methods focus on hydrogen generation, hydrogen distribution, and hydrogen combustion.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.66-74
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• 2024

This study addresses the escalating issue of worldwide hydrogen gas accidents, which has seen a significant increase in occurrences. To comprehensively evaluate the risks associated with hydrogen, a two approach was employed in this study. Firstly, a qualitative risk assessment was conducted using the bow-tie method. Secondly, a quantitative consequence analysis was carried out utilizing the areal locations of hazardous atmospheres (ALOHA) model. The study applied this method to two incidents, the hydrogen explosion accident occurred at the Muskingum River power plant in Ohio, USA, 2007 and the hydrogen storage tank explosion accident occurred at the K Technopark water electrolysis system in Korea, 2019. The results of the risk assessments revealed critical issues such as deterioration of gas pipe, human errors in incident response and the omission of important gas cleaning facility. By analyzing the cause of accidents and assessing risks quantitatively, the effective accident response plans are proposed and the effectiveness is evaluated by comparing the effective distance obtained by ALOHA simulation. Notably, the implementation of these measures led to a significant 54.5% reduction in the risk degree of potential explosions compared to the existing risk levels.