Abstract Ammonia and hydrogen are increasingly recognized as key enablers of a net-zero carbon future, as both emit no carbon during consumption. With the global shift toward a hydrogen economy gaining momentum, ammonia stands out as a practical solution for hydrogen storage and transportation due to its favorable thermodynamic properties. However, ammonia's highly toxic and explosive nature brings significant safety challenges, especially in industrial environments. Ensuring its safe storage, handling, and transport requires thorough hazard identification and detailed risk assessment. Across the world, past incidents involving ammonia leaks, toxic dispersion, and explosions have led to multiple fatalities and severe injuries. With its expanding use in energy and industry sectors, the risk of such accidents is growing making it more important than ever to enhance our understanding of the consequences and associated risks. Integrating consequence analysis at the early stages of project development such as the concept or design phase can significantly improve decision-making. This proactive approach enables the implementation of effective safety measures, loss prevention systems, and emergency response plans from the outset, reducing both the likelihood and impact of potential incidents. Several tools are available to model accidental releases and predict their consequences, including Gaussian dispersion models (1D), empirical formulas (2D), and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations in 3D. While physical experiments provide accurate results, they are costly and involve inherent risks. Likewise, 2D models struggle to replicate complex real-world conditions such as plant congestion, terrain variations, and wind flow. In contrast, 3D-CFD models can capture these complexities with high accuracy, offering realistic simulations of gas behavior under various release scenarios. This paper presents a hypothetical case study of accidental ammonia release, focusing on gas dispersion and explosion potential using advanced 3D-CFD simulations. The study also compares outcomes from 2D and 3D models/ tools to demonstrate the added value of high-fidelity modeling in predicting real-world consequences. The results support a more informed, inherently safer design approach and optimized risk reduction measures while ensuring compliance with 100% HSE goals and minimizing unnecessary capital expenditure.
Patil et al. (Mon,) studied this question.
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