Today, we continue to introduce another common gas – hydrogen. Let’s learn together~
What is hydrogen?
Hydrogen is a colorless, odorless, highly flammable and insoluble gas at room temperature and pressure. Hydrogen is lighter than air. When used and stored indoors, it is difficult to discharge the leaked gas on the roof, and it will cause an explosion when it encounters a fire source. Hydrogen is included in the “List of Hazardous Chemicals” and is controlled in accordance with the “Regulations on the Safety Management of Hazardous Chemicals”.
Application of hydrogen
At present, as my country actively promotes the “dual carbon” strategy, hydrogen energy, as a new type of clean energy, is increasingly favored by the whole society. Especially since the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration issued the “Medium- and Long-Term Plan for the Development of the Hydrogen Energy Industry (2021-2035)” in March 2022, driven by national and local policies, the “hydrogen energy industry” has become a star industry in various places, promoting the research, development and application of technologies in all aspects of hydrogen production, storage and use.
Transportation
The transportation sector is a relatively mature field for hydrogen energy applications. The application of hydrogen energy in the transportation sector includes roads, railways, aviation and shipping. Among them, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are the main application means of hydrogen energy in the transportation sector.
Power generation sector
The application of hydrogen energy in the power generation sector is mainly used as the integration of renewable energy systems for clean power generation and balancing the fluctuations between electricity demand and renewable energy.
Heating and heating
Hydrogen is mixed into existing natural gas pipelines to meet the heating and heating needs in the building sector while reducing carbon emissions. Hydrogen energy can also provide electricity and heat for buildings through fuel cells, realize cogeneration and improve energy efficiency.
Hydrogen metallurgy
At present, many large domestic steel companies are promoting the transformation and construction of hydrogen steelmaking production lines. They have already used blast furnace hydrogen enrichment processes to transform existing blast furnaces, or built gas-based reduction plants to carry out hydrogen steelmaking, while providing steel products to downstream companies to achieve carbon emission reduction.
Application in the medical field
The application prospects of hydrogen in medicine are very broad. As a highly reducing gas, hydrogen can effectively inhibit the damage of free radicals to the human body, and has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-apoptotic effects.
Hazards of hydrogen
01 Easy to leak: Hydrogen has a molecular weight of only 2, which is the lightest gas in nature, so it is very easy to leak. Hydrogen after leakage will gather at the top of the space.
02 Flammability and explosiveness: Hydrogen is highly flammable and explosive, and is a gas that forms an explosive mixture with air. If the concentration of hydrogen in the air reaches 4%~75% and encounters an effective ignition source, it will cause an explosion accident. Therefore, the production, storage and transportation of hydrogen must be very cautious.
03 When burning, the flame is not easy to observe: The flame produced when hydrogen burns is light blue and is almost invisible in sunlight. In many cases, smelly ethanethiol is added to hydrogen to make it detectable by smell and give the flame color at the same time.
04 Easy to cause suffocation: Hydrogen is not toxic, but it can cause suffocation. If the human body inhales too much hydrogen, it will make it impossible for the human body to breathe normally.
05 High-pressure combustion: At present, the pressure levels of hydrogen cylinders are mainly 150bar and 200bar. Under these two pressures, once a pore with a diameter of 1 mm appears in the bottle, a flame about 2 meters long will be generated.
06 Hydrogen embrittlement phenomenon: Hydrogen molecules penetrate into the defective microscopic crystal structure of metal materials under pressure, causing the material to become embrittled and cracked, resulting in hydrogen leakage.
