Tuesday, April 1, 2008 - 9:50 AM

Test Facility for Hydrogen Pipeline Materials at NIST-Boulder

Tom Siewert, David McColskey, and Angelique Lasseigne. National Institute of Standards and Technology

 In 2007, the National Institute of Standards and Technology greatly expanded its efforts in support of the use of hydrogen as a fuel. One aspect was to obtain user feedback on plans for a facility to evaluate and refine mechanical testing procedures for hydrogen pipelines.  For this purpose, we held a workshop in Boulder, Colorado on August 21 and 22, 2007.
The workshop had 46 participants representing pipeline owners, industry and standards organizations, academic researchers, national laboratories, and government agencies. The workshop began with  presentations on NIST (its mission and capabilities), the proposed NIST program on materials compatibility with hydrogen, activities in other government organizations (DOE and DOT), current standards activities and needs for supporting data (especially in ASME), and a description of the roadmap desired from the workshop. Next, the attendees divided into three working groups:
  • Materials – chaired by Brian Somerday, Sandia National Laboratory-Livermore,
  • Test Techniques and Methods – chaired by Andrew Duncan, Savannah River National Laboratory, and
  • Codes, Standards, and Safety – chaired by Lou Hayden, consultant.
While detailed lists of all the needs are included in the reports of each group, the combined participants reviewed only the top three needs identified by each group and then ranked them in descending order of importance. These were:

 Materials
·        Develop advanced tools (measurement techniques, analytical methods, and models)
·        Focus on current construction linepipe steels, with strengths under X70 (rather than other alloy types)
·        Assess the performance of girth welds (and HAZ)

 Test Techniques and Methods
·        Complete the NIST Test Facility (following detailed guidance listed in the group report)
·        Conduct a round robin (to assess repeatability between various hydrogen laboratories)
·        Measure the performance of components (both fiber and matrix in composite linepipe materials as well as welds and their heat affected zones in welded linepipe steel)

 Codes and Standards
·        Measure the performance of current pipeline construction materials (especially those in current use such as API-X52 and SA106B)
·        Study the effect of pressure 
·        Evaluate the effect of microstructure
·        Evaluate non-metallic pipe (while just outside a top-three ranking, a topic the group felt could not be overlooked)

 While most participants felt that 1.5 days for the workshop was too short to complete all tasks necessary for a thorough program plan, the recommendations made in the workshop sessions gives NIST a clear picture as to its necessary course of action with regards to pressurized hydrogen testing of linepipe steels, composite linepipes, and their associated components.

 We will also discuss progress in the construction of the facility to evaluate mechanical test procedures for hydrogen pipeline systems.


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Back to The NHA Annual Hydrogen Conference 2008 (March 31-April 4 2008)