Quantitative risk assessment of a lab-scale hydrogen electrolyzer system

Abstract

Reliability of electrolyzers is important for the deployment of hydrogen technologies. In this work, we present a quantitative risk assessment (QRA) of a lab-scale proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer to determine potential release scenarios, probabilities, and consequences. We implemented a comprehensive QRA methodology using failure modes and effects analysis, HyRAM, fault trees, importance measures, and reliability data. We calculated scenario frequencies, consequences, and harm probabilities to calculate risk metrics for expected hydrogen releases. We identified explosions as the primary consequence of concern due to the release of hydrogen from the hydrogen-water separator. The most important basic events were external and internal leaks of hydrogen from the hydrogen-water separator as well as flow blockages (freezing, plugging) of process valves. Our analysis shows that the expected FAR for an electrolyzer is below the threshold for indoor hydrogen applications. Our QRA shows that risk can be reduced most effectively by preventing leaks and flow blockages from key components such as the stack, gas-water separators, and process valves.

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