HYEX Safety
Since starting in June 2020, HYEX Safety has delivered more than 100 risk assessments in the field hydrogen and ammonia safety. Below are some of the notable aspects of our portfolio:
Hydrogen fuelled ships: We support several vessel developers in their effort to design and approve zero emission vessels fuelled with hydrogen or hydrogen carriers. Such projects will need to follow an alternative design process documenting by explosion risk assessments that the vessel is equally safe as a similar modern conventional vessel. Since 2020 we have supported more than 20 vessel projects in 5 countries, including car and passenger ferries, cargo vessels, cruise ships, a yacht, crew transfer vessels and a private leisure boat. Hydrogen production and storage technologies: Through various projects related to hydrogen production facilities and systems we have developed a significant understanding of possible safety challenges of various electrolyser technologies as well as storage solutions. We are happy to see that facilities we have supported with risk assessments for approval processes have started production, or will soon, in as diverse fields as PtX, green metal production, green ammonia production, hydrogen-to-homes and more. Ammonia Risk Assessment: Ammonia is projected to be an important hydrogen carrier within the maritime. HYEX is a partner in the ammonia fuel bunkering network and responsible for safety studies to help developing a network of green ammonia bunkering terminals. Safety studies for ammonia facilities as well as ammonia fuelled vessels are also performed. Siting studies: While the majority of facility siting studies are performed for clients in Norway and Scandinavia, we also perform studies for clients elsewhere. Expertise: Our goal is to provide highly competent advice reflecting state-of-the-art knowledge within hydrogen and ammonia safety. At the same time we want to give advice in an efficient way. To achieve both, we use a combination of spreadsheet tools and comprehensive computational fluid dynamics (CFD) combined with expert knowledge. We regularly share knowledge and experience by publishing work in scholarly journals. A selection of relevant articles is found at the bottom of this page. We also engage in research and development initiatives such as the Ammonia Fuel Bunkering Network project and the HYDROGENi research centre. HYEX Safety is also represented in the advisory board of the ELVHYS LH2 project and also IMO interim guidance development for hydrogen vessels representing the NGO ZESTAs.
CFD-geometry of Coradia iLint hydrogen train. Photo: Alstom.
Fast and reliable computational fluid dynamics
The work career of Olav Roald Hansen, Founder of HYEX Safety, has focused on the development and use of the CFD-model FLACS.
CMR and Gexcon (1993-2012)
In 1993, Olav joined CMR (Gexcon) and the team developing the FLACS software tool. He quickly became responsible for validating and calibrating FLACS-models against 100s of large-scale experiments, and developed sub-models, e.g. for flame acceleration from sub-grid objects, effect of water deluge and mixing rules for multi-component gas mixtures and inert gases. He was in charge of modelling activities towards various phases of the large-scale BFETS explosion test projects. With Gexcon, he developed a CFD-based QRA-approach. Validation-based user guidelines for FLACS were established and he developed a 3-days FLACS training course 1997, used to train FLACS-users for the next 10-15 years. As R&D Director from 2001-2008, he was responsible for the development and global sale of FLACS, with significant interaction with engineers from 50+ companies using FLACS globally. He organized industry seminars across Europe and held hands-on FLACS workshops for MSc students 10 years in a row at Leeds University. He was in charge of development projects to study transformer explosions, oil mist explosions, develop LNG pool model, hydrogen dispersion/explosion tests and dust explosion models, and was active in the HySafe project and IEA expert groups from 2004-2012 with significant interaction with global expertise. He was also involved in various dispersion projects with US agencies (DTRA/DHS/EPA) related to toxic industry chemicals. In 2008, at the onset of the global financial crisis, Olav started Gexcon US, which he led until returning to Norway 2010 to become Gexcon Product Director.
GL Noble Denton (2012-2014)
In 2012 Olav joined GL (now part of DNV) and built a small CFD consulting team working closely with UK colleagues, including the team at Spadeadam large-scale test site. CFD-studies for clients at three continents were performed. With the help of large-scale experiments modelling approaches were developed e.g. for DDT/detonation simulations and blast from BLEVEs, both beyond published FLACS-capabilities.
Lloyd's Register (2014-2020)
In 2014, Olav joined the risk management part of LR as a Senior Principal Consultant with responsibility for explosion studies. Prior to and through the 2014-2016 oil crisis, he was involved in numerous oil and gas projects, including most phases of, and platforms at, the huge Johan Sverdrup field, opened 2019. From 2016, he gradually focused more on hydrogen safety studies. Increasingly, Olav cooperated with the maritime division of LR related to hydrogen, being involved in ongoing hydrogen projects, and developing a training course for their specialist. Between 2016 and 2020, he was been involved in 30-40 different hydrogen safety consulting projects and R&D activities.
Through his career, Olav has enjoyed good access to large-scale experiments through R&D sponsors, cooperation partners or colleagues performing testing. He never wasted an opportunity to simulate large-scale experiments, often prior to getting access to test results (i.e. blind predictions). The combination of model predictions and access to results from experiments has made it possible to gain unique insights and understanding of explosion and dispersion phenomena, and how to model such scenarios quickly and with good precision.
