SafePtX

Challenge

Hydrogen plays a key role in the production of electrofuels using Power-to-X solutions. Safety when handling hydrogen is important, and when hydrogen is produced by electrolysis, mixtures of hydrogen and oxygen gases are formed, which can pose a safety threat to both equipment and personnel. Gas concentrations must therefore be continuously monitored so that production can be rapidly shut down if threshold values are exceeded. The current sensor types require a complicated measurement set-up, are costly, and cannot be approved for the higher safety classes.

Solution

In this innovation project, a new sensor solution for process monitoring of hydrogen in applications such as electrolysis plants is being developed and demonstrated. The advantages of the new sensor type include long-term stability and internal diagnostics based on signal redundancy. These properties could significantly increase uptime and thus productivity on hydrogen production systems. In addition, the sensors’ ability to measure directly in the process gas will reduce the complexity of current gas monitoring systems, where pre-treatment before the hydrogen measurements significantly increases costs. Overall, the sensors thus provide a significant reduction in the production cost of hydrogen.

Effect

Increased hydrogen production for PtX plants, increased uptime at electrolysis plants and reduced production costs due to the optimized process.

In addition, the sensor method with its optimized safety class will be able to make the placement of electrolysis plants more flexible.