Introduction of Technical Document in Japan for Safe Use of Ground Storage Vessels Made of Low Alloy Steels for Hydrogen Refueling Stations

As is well known, low alloy steels are widely used as materials for high pressure vessels because of their high tensile strength and reasonable price, but also show severe hydrogen embrittlement. Therefore, in 2016, the authors introduced a scenario for the safe use of low alloy steels in highly pressurized hydrogen gas as a “Guideline” at ASME PVP 2016 [1]. Following discussions with stakeholders and experts in recent years, we published Technical Document (TD) as an industrial standard prior to regulation, on the safe use of ground storage vessels made of low alloy steels in Hydrogen Refueling Stations (HRSs) based on performance requirements. This article presents an outline of the TD describing the required types of testing as performance requirements for confirming the good hydrogen compatibility of low alloy steels, such as controlling tensile strength in an appropriate range, confirming leak-before-break, determining the life of ground storage vessels by fatigue testing and determining the inspection term by fatigue crack growth analysis using the fatigue crack growth rate in highly pressurized hydrogen.