Movement Characteristics of Hydrogen Gas Within the Ground and Its Detection at Ground Surface

Hydrogen gas is expected to be a clean, environmentally friendly future energy source. As a method to supply hydrogen gas to a fuel cell station, the use of buried pipelines is being studied in Japan and elsewhere. To realize this idea, ensuring safety is very important. Specifically, the understanding of hydrogen gas movement characteristics, including the extent and speed of movement within the ground in the event of a hydrogen leak, is extremely important, as is the reliability assessment of pipeline materials in order to establish the basis for the design and maintenance of safe facilities. To establish a foundation for ensuring the safety of buried hydrogen supply pipelines, full-scale experiments on underground hydrogen gas leakage and numerical simulation were performed. The release and movement characteristics of hydrogen gas within soil were investigated and measured with the objective of establishing hydrogen gas leak detection technology. KeywordsRoad Base; Buried Pipeline; Partially Saturated Soil; Hydrogen Gas Permeability