In the future, green hydrogen (H2) will be a key player in the energy transition. Produced free of CO2 with solar or wind power, green hydrogen is available as an energy carrier for numerous applications in three sectors, i.e. electricity, heat and mobility, and for its utilization as a chemical material in industry. To use green hydrogen comprehensively, many prerequisites will, however, have to be created. PTB is accompanying this process. It is promoting the technological development of the hydrogen economy in terms of metrology and safety engineering, and it is contributing to the setting up of a reliable infrastructure. To this end, PTB intends to build a demonstrator facility of its own on its premises in Braunschweig. PTB is already participating, together with other research partners from Lower Saxony, in the establishment of an innovation laboratory for hydrogen technology. In this laboratory, ideas are to be developed which are close to practical applications and can be implemented for research and transfer concepts.
The measurement competence for many H2-relevant quantities is either already available at PTB or can be set up in the medium term. Besides density, efficiency, calorific value, heat quantity, viscosity and chemical composition, these quantities are as follows:
Pressure: PTB is one of only three metrology institutes worldwide that can measure high pressures in the range of 800 bar with very small uncertainties. In the near future, PTB will expand its measurement capabilities for gas pressures of up to 1000 bar (which may occur during the production, transport and storage of hydrogen).
Temperature: In the field of temperature measurement, PTB operates and develops a wide range of hydrogen-relevant measurement methods, for example, with regard to the thermal management of hydrogen cryogenic-pressure storage tanks.
Explosion protection
Hydrogen is an extremely ignitable gas when mixed with air. For a wide range of applications, maximum safety must be guaranteed at all times – whether these applications are close to the consumer (for example, at petrol filling stations) or in industrial processes. In close cooperation with BAM, PTB’s main objective here is the development of test procedures for explosion-protected equipment, the standardization of these procedures and their implementation in the legally regulated conformity assessment procedures.
Synthetic fuels
PTB already engages in the analysis and characterization of synthetic hydrogen-based fuels for both aerospace and commercial vehicles. An optimization of tailor-made synthetic fuels for combustion with as few pollutants as possible will only be successful if, for example, the ignition behavior and the reaction kinetics are known.
Departments and working groups involved:
Department 3.3 Physical Chemistry: Analytical and preparative metrology for hydrogen and hydrogen-based fuels
Department 3.4 Analytical Chemistry of the Gas Phase: moisture in industrial and energy gases / spectroscopic analysis / reaction kinetics
Department 3.5 Explosion protection in energy technology: H2-MILD combustion technology
Department 3.7 Fundamentals of explosion protection: safety-related consideration of hydrogen
Department 7.4 Temperature: equation of state of hydrogen-methane gas mixtures
Department 7.5 Heat and Vacuum: tightness of high-pressure vessels and pipelines