News and Views, Volume 50 | What’s All the Buzz About Hydrogen!
By: Daniel Peters (SI) and Thomas Pastor (HSB Global Inspection & Engineering Services)
A recent news story reported:
- Hydrogen initiatives are accelerating globally.
- 200+ large-scale projects have been announced across the value chain, with a total value exceeding $300 billion
- 30+ countries have national hydrogen strategies in place, and public funding is growing
Anyone who is following climate change issues and the expansion of the use of renewable energy would have seen the subject hydrogen popping up all over the place. Just do a Google search using the following words “hydrogen renewable energy climate change” and dozens of links will be displayed promoting the use of green or renewable hydrogen, made from the electrolysis of water powered by solar or wind, as indispensable in achieving climate neutrality.
Recently, a client approached SI after finding a through-wall flaw in an autoclave at the head-to-shell weld as indicated by a visible dye liquid penetrant examination (Figure 1). The autoclave was one of eight similar vessels used for processing the client’s product. Three of the autoclaves are identical in construction to the flawed autoclave and operate with similar process conditions. Remote visual examination by the client indicated that all four autoclaves had similar observations at the inside of the head-to-shell weld, but only one was leaking. The remaining four autoclaves are smaller and are used infrequently. The initial call from the client was for SI to provide emergent support for inspection of the three autoclaves identical to the leaking one to meet production demands. SI responded quickly and examined all four autoclaves using a manual phased array ultra-sonic technique (PAUT) from the exterior of the vessel. The manual PAUT examination provided excellent coverage of the weld region and visualization of the through wall flaw (Figure 2).
