• Martinez, Michaël
• Vucko, Flavien
• Kittel, J.
• Joshi, Gr
• Mendibide, Christophe

Abstract

With the international drive to deploy green energies and decarbonized intermediates in the place of fossil fuel sources, a large number of developed countries are actively preparing for a future where hydrogen plays a strategic role as an energy storage medium. Producing and using hydrogen requires the rapid expansion of a dedicated, economically viable industrial sector. Nevertheless, questions on how to safely store, transport and distribute hydrogen remain an important priority today. In countries with existing natural gas transport grids, the possibility to retrofit these networks to store and transport hydrogen-natural gas blends is being studied. A key challenge is to evaluate how pressurized H2 would interact with steel structures with regards structural embrittlement of the latter, with a view to exploiting existing transport infrastructures for storage and transport applications. In this work, we evaluate the H2-performance of a non-hydrogen service ×65 pipeline steel. The cracking susceptibility of this steel grade has been evaluated at 100 bar H2 using slow strain rate testing, Constant strain testing and fracture toughness measurements. Accompanying hydrogen permeation tests under pressure provide diffusion data and elucidate the discussion. Exposures were carried out in dry or wet H2 and with or without H2S contamination at levels representative of biogas. The results underline that the impact of dry or wet hydrogen on this grade are moderate. The presence of traces of H2S together with humidity could risk seriously degrading the mechanical performance of the ×65 steel grade. © 2023 The Authors ; Correspondence Address: C. Mendibide; Institut de La Corrosion (French Corrosion Institute), Part of RISE - ZA Du Parc, Fraisses, Secteur Gampille, F-42490, France;

Topics

• impedance spectroscopy
• corrosion
• crack
• steel
• Hydrogen
• susceptibility
• fracture toughness