During the H2 Tech Series at World Hydrogen 2023 Summit & Exhibition, we heard from James Taylor, Research and Development Manager, Chesterfield Special Cylinders!
Hello good afternoon I’m James Taylor I’m the research and development manager at Chesterfield cylinders and today I’m going to talk to you about the hydrogen storage and supporting safety and enhanced availability through life cycle management so brief cover the company and the group we’re a UK based company
We our diverse range of markets defense oil and gas power generation industrial gas and hydrogen energy markets the customer base is safety critical and high integrity uh CSC is a subsidiary of pressure Technologies PLC which is a an holding company on Alternatives investment market so a brief history and it’s quite
Long history um CSC were founded in 1897 as a wed seal tube company and it was bought out in 1906 by the Chesterfield 2 company primarily the project the product then was seamless steel tubes for defense and Commercial purposes periscopes torpedo Tu boilers but safety critical and integrity applications CSC
Then furthered Diversified during war efforts and made transportable tubes structural tubes and gas cylinders to help kind of the aircraft um Freighters and destroyers submarines and also transportable tubes to carry hydrogen that fill barrage balloons some of those tubes that filled the barrage balloons are still in service today in
Hydrogen storage 80 years ago around 1906 as well this is where the main state of what we do now which is gas cylinders tubes and pressure vessels and we started making them for oxygen and carbon dioxide and then further moved on to Industrial gases hydrogen being one of
Them in 1930s the heavy tube Department were created and they manufacture seamless cylinders up 6 60 mm in diameter an example of this product is one of the early first Hydrogen tube trailers that was pre1 1950 so quickly on this one before we get into the more technical stuff is
We’ve been designing and Manufacturing cylinders tubes and pressure vessels for over 120 5 years this has been Global and covered many different jurisdictions we offer ongoing technical support for the life of the product whether this is technical advice or through life cycle management we can do that either at our facility or offered
Globally in C bio Integrity management team so quickly what is Adan storage many of you already know but hydrogen storage is integral to supporting the hydrogen supply chain from manufacturing to transport to point of use typically type one static storage pressure vessels are used as ground storage working pressures depend on
Application but vary between less than 200 bar to 950 bar type one steel transportable cylinders and tubes are the virtual pipeline between the manufacturer and the point of use they also can be the point of use with off take straight from them they typically range in pressure
Again probably up to kind of 200 300 400 bar for type one and they could take the form of individual pressure receptacles or form part of bundles mec’s or battery Vehicles as can be seen here ground storage on the top picture and um two battery vehicles for the bottom two that
Are in service currently so designed for through life safety type 1 steel cylinders have been used for the storage of ID for well over a 100 years the product has developed greatly over this time becoming more efficient with processing non-destructive examination and metallurgical advancements but the designs always come from International
European and National codes and standards with storage of hydrogen primarily as their focus Point things like iso12 ad2000 asme section A div 1 D2 and these have always been developed by experts with Decades of experience and product data from in the field but crucially what we do is we
Marry up with design optimization with through life inspection and maintenance at hand this gives both a unique skill set which gives some hydr storage systems over 80 years in service so as can be seen one of the members of our team carrying out inspection an offshore platform um doing visual inspection on a
Crane so managing fatigue and embrittlement which is a topic that’s always brought up so as many as with most materials and cyclic loading fatigue is an issue and coupled with hydrogen and brl it can be accelerated so we had product in service for 80 plus years essentially it’s engineering EMB brement can be
Effectively and safely managed this is done by evaluating and qualifying the product with hydrogen service in mind not only through codes and standards but by utilizing Decades of products experience and data typical causes of embrittlement stress raises such as notches ey stress disigns and features and also the material micr
Structure how we mitigate this so we use low stress designs in Geometry these reduce the stress concentration areas and therefore potentials for propagation seamless smoothly transitioned integrally forged product means low stress and no welds means no heat affected zones internal surface finish we go above and beyond the quality dictated by the
Standards and codes to eliminate any stress raises nde advancements such as UT and AET which we’ll come on to later allow finer imperfections possible defects to be detected Quantified and removed if required chemical analysis and material properties so Sor tell the time um a micr structure can be tightly controlled utilizing
Standards such as quad4 part one which is compatibility for example of cylinders and valve materials with the gas content these have been developed again through Decades of experience fatigue analysis is undertaken again this is generally conservative because the calculations are always based on propagation and growth rather than initiation we strive
To eliminate any potential sour ources of initiation at the design and Manufacturing stage and then by tying this in with periodic inspection and test regimes it allows any potential issues to be caught in their infancy so what makes TI one optimized for hydrogen essentially steel is versatile and manages temporary variations steel
Can be rapidly filled and discharg with hydrogen and still be below the creep range created by the transient temperatures from the gas expansion and compression not only is this beneficial for product utilization allows better efficiency of use but it also allows pulse purging for gas Purity and that
Can either be done at commissioning or being re-entered into service after inspections this reduced downtime and product life cycle in its maintenance periods so as you can see a typical installation um for hydrogen static storage at refueling station so crucially what makes this product last along is periodic inspection and test periodic inspection
And test can be overlooked by operators but these are critical to the prolonged continued and safe use of the product they assess the condition of the product and its ability to continue in service the inspection and test can be done at the facility or in situe where the
Product is cited and this can be done globally by our management team to underline the importance of periodic inspection and test we promoted and worked on British and European standards for inue non-destructive examination and testing of products in service in particular where it’s not sustainable to remove the
Product one of the main focus points of this is acoustic emission testing now a is a tried and tested technique AET works by using specialized equipment that turns acoustic emission the electronic sound waves generated into electrical signals that come from energy release such as a prop crack propagation
Or formation this is particularly suited to monolithic homogeneous structures such as steel tubes and pressure vessels this is typically achieved by placing sensors at the end of each tube and calibrating the equipment using very sensitive Um kind of sensors so they’ll even detect half a millimeter pencil Le brake in the length of a 12 M tube we usually pressurize to 110% of the operating pressure and this overcomes a Kaiser effect and puts the material into a stressed area where it’s not been used
Operationally this will allow any defect if it is there to propagate and be seen it particular advantages are allowing inspection of products in situ potentially using the medium that’s in there this reduces downtime and it maintains hyen Purity and eliminates any cross contamination and it can detect crack formation and propagation in difficult
To access areas and crucially in its infancy before it it generates into any kind of defect that would be problematic so it’s going to be seing on the top pictures you’ve got acoustic emission testing and then on the ones are ultrasonic testing it’s been done in house so crucially we optimize our
Product designs with our customers operators and authorities to integrate periodic inspection and test and inspection intervals with fatigue cycles and plant maintenance periods when combined with Institute testing like AET visual inspection increases cost Effectiveness plant availability and reduces downtime bringing the overall OE up some inspectors and testing can be carried
Out while the product is in service further increasing the equipment’s up time and keeping plants and virtual pipelines running for longer this makes the product very sustainable so sustainability steel is sustainable and goes hand in hand with the goals of a sustainable future Tye 1 steel is cost
Effective and efficient for the storage of hydrogen steel is sourced typically for us of European origin low CO2 mileage footprint and production sites being based in Europe with strong decarbonization strategies as EU targets Net Zero proven longevity of type one products with some reaching over 80
Years in service and also still is 100% recyclable when it’s reached the end of its operational life it creates a circular economy it will be melted down essentially and made new storage vessels once again this reduces the customers and the economy’s footprint total cost of ownership so by
Utilizing type one TCO is reduced in comparison to other Technologies by optimizing the storage from the outset you you know back to fatigue and ining the low stress designs fatigue analysis periodic inspection and test and optimizing for customers maintenance periods not only is the usable life of
The asset increased but so is its utilization and crucially the operator’s up time this can drastically offsets the capex with a reduction of Opex compared to other Technologies and also at the end of its life there will usually be residual value in the scrap before it is made into new vessels once
Again so in summary type one steeled products can provide Decades of utilization through effective technical design and life cycle Management Institute periodic inspection test and recertification examinations increase operating efficiency and operator PL sub time and it provides a circular and sustainable economy essentially thank you for your time um
If you have any questions we’re located at b64 the chville cylinder site and I to thank you for your time [Applause] cheers