Challenges and Opportunities for Sustainable Hydrogen Detection

Hydrogen is a form of clean energy with the potential to replace the dependability on fossil fuels by powering vehicles. In comparison to other combustible gases such as methane and propane, hydrogen has a lot of remarkable properties ( for example, lower density, low boiling point, minimum ignition energy) which make it a potential candidate in today’s emerging economy called the ‘hydrogen economy. Since hydrogen is gas without color, odor and taste, it is almost impossible to sense the hydrogen by human organs and therefore, different technology, devices and systems are prerequisite to identify its presence in the particular environment, Additionally it is also difficult to quantify its concentration during production, storage, and transportation applications. Highly flammable nature of hydrogen reinforce the need of detection of any minor leaks. Hydrogen sensors have been successfully employed for management and monitoring in manufacturing plants, small scale production units , pipelines, refilling stations, turbine generators where hydrogen is used as a coolant and for shuttle, rocket launching station as well as many other operation of space and defence industries. The presented paper will provide a summary in the areas of hydrogen detection technology for various industries and processes.