PERMEABILITY, SOLUBILITY, AND INTERACTION OF HYDROGEN IN POLYMERS- AN ASSESSMENT OF MATERIALS FOR HYDROGEN TRANSPORT

Fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) piping has been identified as a leading candidate for use in a transport system for the Hydrogen Economy. Understanding the permeation and leakage of hydrogen through the candidate materials is vital to effective materials system selection or design and development of safe and efficient materials for this application. A survey of the literature showed that little data on hydrogen permeation are available and no mechanistically-based models to quantitatively predict permeation behavior have been developed. However, several qualitative trends in gaseous permeation have been identified and simple calculations have been performed to identify leakage rates for polymers of varying crystallinity. Additionally, no plausible mechanism was found for the degradation of polymeric materials in the presence of pure hydrogen. The absence of anticipated degradation is due to lack of interactions between hydrogen and FRP and very low solubility coefficients of hydrogen in polymeric materials. Recommendations are made to address research and testing needs to support successful materials development and use of FRP materials for hydrogen transport and distribution.