Characterisation and First Applications of a Facility for Independent Customer Testing of Hydrogen Sensors

Hydrogen sensor reliability in service conditions is a fundamental requirement for the prevention of potential risks of creating hydrogen-air flammable and explosive mixtures at operating hydrogen facilities. The complex automated hydrogen sensor test bench presented here was designed for testing of hydrogen safety sensors in service-simulated conditions. It consists of two testing chambers, supported by various subsidiary systems, including gas/liquids mixing parts and analytical equipment. It enables to prepare mixtures of synthetic air with up to 2 % of H2, at defined humidity and enriched with possible interfering gases such as CO2, CO, CH4, H2S, SO2, organic vapours etc., and to set pressure from 50 to 150 kPa and temperature in the range -50 to 120 ˚C. The test gas is monitored by independent gas chromatography analysis and by a dew point meter. The entire facility control as well as data acquisition is provided by a LabView® system. With the sensor situated in the larger test chamber and connected to measuring circuitry, the facility can be used for sensor calibration, but also to measure cross-sensitivity to most common gaseous and vapour pollutants, and/or to investigate the effect of environmental conditions such as temperature, pressure and relative humidity in the range 0 to 95%. An alternative, smaller, chamber enables to measure the time response of the sensor upon a step change of test gas composition. The facility, which was characterised mainly through testing of commercial hydrogen sensors according to international standards (e.g. IEC 61779-1), also enables more sophisticated measurements for scientific and technological development purposes. Examples of calibrations, temperature and humidity effect on sensors of various types and ranges of sensitivity, as well as testing procedures are presented.

SALYK Ota;  CASTELLO Paolo; 

2006-11-15

Scientific Technical Centre TATA;

JRC33131

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC33131,