Catalytic hydrogen combustion has been widely used for both heat generation such as heaters, burners, and cookers, and safety applications (i.e., removal of undesired hydrogen). This study provides an assessment of three types of catalytic recombiners across various hydrogen management scenarios. Passive autocatalytic recombiners, originally developed to mitigate hydrogen explosion risks in nuclear containments, can also serve as alternative or supplementary measures in other confined environments prone to hydrogen accumulation. Monolith-type recombiners can be integrated with venting or purging systems to facilitate hydrogen removal during both routine operations and accidental releases. Trickle-bed recombiners, designed to oxidize stoichiometric hydrogen–oxygen mixtures at low temperatures, are particularly suited for gas purification. Selected experiments are presented to evaluate the operational characteristics, potential applications, and limitations of these recombiners. The findings demonstrate that appropriately designed and sized recombiners can effectively maintain hydrogen concentrations within safe limits.
Liang et al. (Thu,) studied this question.