TY - JOUR A1 - Camplese, Davide A1 - Cozzolino, Chiara A1 - Scarponi, Giordano Emrys A1 - Eberwein, Robert A1 - Otremba, Frank A1 - Cozzani, Valerio T1 - Safety Assessment of MLI Super-Insulation Systems for Cryogenic Liquid-Hydrogen Tanks in Fire Scenarios N2 - In the context of green energy transition, cryogenic tanks insulated by MLI and vacuum are emerging as a leading solution to store hydrogen in heavy-duty vehicles. However, the integrity of such tanks can be jeopardized by fire. In such a scenario, MLI materials degradation can occur, leaving the tank unprotected from the fire heat flux, with consequent rapid pressurization and a high risk of failure. This study presents a safety assessment of non-combustible MLI under fire exposure based on the estimation of the time to mechanical failure of the equipment. This is calculated through an innovative model that simulates the thermomechanical response of the tank, including the MLI thermal degradation and the pressure-relief valve (PRV) operation. The application to several case studies that consider a typical LH2 tank featuring a wide range of MLI configurations demonstrated the likelihood of failure in case of exposure to a hydrocarbon pool fire, providing also comprehensive insights into the impact of the insulation characteristics and operating conditions on the time to failure. T2 - Loss Prevention 2025 CY - Bologna, Italien DA - 09.06.2025 KW - LH2 KW - LNG KW - Fire KW - Insulation KW - Safety KW - Tank PY - 2025 DO - https://doi.org/10.3303/CET25116036 SN - 2283-9216 IS - 116 SP - 211 EP - 216 PB - AIDIC AN - OPUS4-63739 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Eberwein, Robert A1 - Hajhariri, Aliasghar A1 - Camplese, D. A1 - Scarponi, G. E. A1 - Cozzani, V. A1 - Otremba, Frank T1 - Insulation Materials Used in Tanks for the Storage of Cryogenic Fluids in Fire Scenarios N2 - The importance of tanks for storing cryogenic fluids in the energy industry is increasing because of ongoing political conflicts and the implementation of more environmentally friendly energy sources. Key representatives for the application of cryogenic tanks are natural gas in the form of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and hydrogen, e. g. in the form of Liquefied Hydrogen (LH2), for which significantly higher transport capacities can be achieved with the same transport volume using cryogenic storages than with storages based solely on overpressure. What applies to all cryogenic transported fluids in common is their condition that must be maintained. Hence heat flows into the preserved fluid must be minimized. Thermal super Insulations (TSI) based on e. g. multilayer insulations (MLI), perlites, and vacuum are utilized for this purpose and have already proven themselves in similar applications. However, for the use of tanks for cryogenic fluids in the transport sector, there is insufficient knowledge regarding the course and consequences of incidents, which is due to the still short period of use and the few documented incidents, hence few investigations carried out in this field. Typical scenarios in the transport sector represent car accidents with collisions, fires, and their combination, which are associated with extraordinary loads on the tank. The focus of this study is to investigate the behavior of TSI as a result of their thermal exposure to a heat source representing a fire. It is worth mentioning that this could lead to an increase of the heat flux into a tank by several orders of magnitude, and to permanent damage of the TSI, ultimately rapid release of flammable gas as well as a Boiling Liquide Expanding Vapour Explosion (BLEVE). For this purpose, a high temperature thermal vacuum chamber (HTTVC) has been developed that allows thermal loading of MLI or perlites in a vacuum and simultaneous measurement of heat flow through this TSI. The HTTVC is designed to represent realistic insulation conditions and to withstand thermal loads from typical design fires. The HTTVC was applied to investigate TSI based on MLI and vacuum. It is shown that the thermal stress caused permanent damage to the TSI, with shrinkage, phase change, pyrolysis, and condensation being significant damage mechanisms. The results are relevant for the evaluation of accident scenarios and can thus contribute to the improvement of TSI and the development of emergency measures for the protection of persons and infrastructures. T2 - ASME 2023 Pressure Vessels & Piping Conference (PVP2023) CY - Atlanta, Georgia, USA DA - 16.07.2023 KW - LH2 KW - LNG KW - Fire KW - MLI KW - Safety PY - 2023 AN - OPUS4-57974 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Eberwein, Robert A1 - Heßmann, Jennifer A1 - Werner, Jan A1 - Scarponi, Giordano Emrys A1 - Cozzani, Valerio A1 - Otremba, Frank T1 - Investigation of realistic fire scenarios involving cryogenic storage tanks N2 - The number of vehicles using or transporting cryogenic fuels such as Liquefied Hydrogen (LH2) or Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) increases fast in the land transportation sector. Does this also entail new risks for instance from a BLEVE? A key to answer this question is to research representative fires by its characterization and its effect on the insulation. At BAM’s technical test side in Germany, a test series was started to answer this question among others. This paper presents results on a pool fire under a colorimeter, that simulates a tank. The investigation points out, that the full fire characterization approach allows to represent the fire. The findings are relevant for the investigation of a representative design fire that is applicable for the approval and improvement of tanks as well as to research accident scenarios and their consequences. T2 - 18th EFCE International Symposium on Loss Prevention and Safety Promotion in the Process Industries CY - Bologna, Italy DA - 08.06.2025 KW - LH2 KW - Insulation KW - Fire KW - Liquefied Natural Gas KW - Safety PY - 2025 AN - OPUS4-63425 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Otremba, Frank T1 - Systems with Cryogenic Liquefied Gases in Fire Incidents N2 - Liquefied Hydrogen (LH2) or Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) establish themselves as important energy carriers in the transport sector. Its storage requires tanks with Thermal Super Insulations (TSI) to keep the transported fluid cold. TSI has proven itself in various applications over a long time, but not in the land transport sector, where accidents involving collisions, fires, and their combination are to be expected. The focus of this study is to investigate the behavior of different types of TSI when exposed to a heat source that represents a fire. Therefore, a High- Temperature Thermal Vacuum Chamber (HTTVC) was used that allows the thermal loading of thermal insulation material in a vacuum and measuring the heat flow through the TSI in parallel. Within this study, 5 samples were tested regarding 3 different types of MLI, rock wool, and perlites. The thermal exposure caused different effects on the samples. In practice, this can be connected to the rapid release of flammable gases as well as a Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapour Explosion (BLEVE). These results are relevant for the evaluation of accident scenarios, the improvement of TSI, and the development of emergency measures. T2 - IMECE 2023 CY - New Orleans, Louisiana, USA DA - 29.10.2023 KW - LH2 KW - LNG KW - Fire PY - 2023 AN - OPUS4-58769 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Eberwein, Robert A1 - Hajhariri, Aliasghar A1 - Camplese, Davide A1 - Scarponi, Giordano Emrys A1 - Cozzani, Valerio A1 - Otremba, Frank T1 - A comparative study on insulation materials in tanks for the storage of cryogenic fluids in fire incidents N2 - Liquefied Hydrogen (LH2) or Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) establish themselves as important energy carriers in the transport sector. Its storage requires tanks with Thermal Super Insulations (TSI) to keep the transported fluid cold. TSI has proven itself in various applications over a long time, but not in the land transport sector, where accidents involving collisions, fires, and their combination are to be expected. The focus of this study is to investigate the behavior of different types of TSI when exposed to a heat source that represents a fire. Therefore, a High-Temperature Thermal Vacuum Chamber (HTTVC) was used that allows the thermal loading of thermal insulation material in a vacuum and measuring the heat flow through the TSI in parallel. Within this study, 5 samples were tested regarding 3 different types of MLI, rock wool, and perlites. The thermal exposure caused different effects on the samples. In practice, this can be connected to the rapid release of flammable gases as well as a Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapour Explosion (BLEVE). These results are relevant for the evaluation of accident scenarios, the improvement of TSI, and the development of emergency measures. T2 - IMECE 2023 CY - New Orleans, Louisiana, USA DA - 29.10.2023 KW - LH2 KW - LNG KW - Fire PY - 2023 SP - 1 EP - 7 AN - OPUS4-58768 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Eberwein, Robert A1 - Hajhariri, Aliasghar A1 - Camplese, D. A1 - Scarponi, G. E. A1 - Cozzani, V. A1 - Otremba, Frank T1 - Insulation Materials Used in Tanks for the Storage of Cryogenic Fluids in Fire Scenarios N2 - The importance of tanks for storing cryogenic fluids in the energy industry is increasing because of ongoing political conflicts and the implementation of more environmentally friendly energy sources. Key representatives for the application of cryogenic tanks are natural gas in the form of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and hydrogen, e. g. in the form of Liquefied Hydrogen (LH2), for which significantly higher transport capacities can be achieved with the same transport volume using cryogenic storages than with storages based solely on overpressure. What applies to all cryogenic transported fluids in common is their condition that must be maintained. Hence heat flows into the preserved fluid must be minimized. Thermal super Insulations (TSI) based on e. g. multilayer insulations (MLI), perlites, and vacuum are utilized for this purpose and have already proven themselves in similar applications. However, for the use of tanks for cryogenic fluids in the transport sector, there is insufficient knowledge regarding the course and consequences of incidents, which is due to the still short period of use and the few documented incidents, hence few investigations carried out in this field. Typical scenarios in the transport sector represent car accidents with collisions, fires, and their combination, which are associated with extraordinary loads on the tank. The focus of this study is to investigate the behavior of TSI as a result of their thermal exposure to a heat source representing a fire. It is worth mentioning that this could lead to an increase of the heat flux into a tank by several orders of magnitude, and to permanent damage of the TSI, ultimately rapid release of flammable gas as well as a Boiling Liquide Expanding Vapour Explosion (BLEVE). For this purpose, a high temperature thermal vacuum chamber (HTTVC) has been developed that allows thermal loading of MLI or perlites in a vacuum and simultaneous measurement of heat flow through this TSI. The HTTVC is designed to represent realistic insulation conditions and to withstand thermal loads from typical design fires. The HTTVC was applied to investigate TSI based on MLI and vacuum. It is shown that the thermal stress caused permanent damage to the TSI, with shrinkage, phase change, pyrolysis, and condensation being significant damage mechanisms. The results are relevant for the evaluation of accident scenarios and can thus contribute to the improvement of TSI and the development of emergency measures for the protection of persons and infrastructures. T2 - ASME 2023 Pressure Vessels & Piping Conference (PVP2023) CY - Atlanta, Georgia, USA DA - 16.07.2023 KW - LH2 KW - LNG KW - MLI KW - Fire PY - 2023 SP - 1 EP - 8 PB - ASME AN - OPUS4-57973 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Eberwein, Robert A1 - Scarponi, Giordano Emrys A1 - Cozzani, Valerio A1 - Otremba, Frank T1 - Lh2 Tanks In Fire Incidents - The Cryogenic High Temperature Thermal Vacuum Chamber Enables In-Depth Insights N2 - Liquefied Hydrogen (LH2) and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) establish themselves as important energy carriers in the transport sector. Their storage requires tanks with thermal super-insulations to keep them at cryogenic conditions for a long time. These insulation systems have proven itself in various applications over a long time. However, these insulations are still new in land transportation, where accidents involving collisions, fires, and their combination are to be expected. This study summarizes the results of the ongoing research program in which insulations commonly used in industry were analysed through experimental and numerical studies under fire-like conditions. It was found that there are strong differences among the various insulation systems. Several safety concerns and research gaps exists for layered insulations, which are typically used in land transport. To further analyse these insulation systems, a new test concept called Cryogenic High Temperature Thermal Vacuum Chamber (CHTTVC) was developed and manufactured. This concept enables the testing of large insulation samples under industrial conditions and the consideration of cryogenic conditions relevant for the investigation of various phenomena. The results are important for the evaluation of accident scenarios, the improvement of thermal super-insulations, and the development of emergency measures. T2 - IMECE 2024 CY - Oregon, Portland, USA DA - 17.11.2024 KW - LH2 KW - LNG KW - Fire KW - Insulation KW - Safety PY - 2024 SN - 978-0-7918-8869-8 SP - 1 EP - 7 PB - ASME AN - OPUS4-61751 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Camplese, D. A1 - Chianese, C. A1 - Scarponi, G. A1 - Eberwein, Robert A1 - Otremba, Frank A1 - Cozzani, V. T1 - Analysis of high temperature degradation of multi-layer insulation (MLI) systems for liquid hydrogen storage tanks N2 - The interest in hydrogen-based green energy is increasing worldwide, and the same is true for hydrogen-powered vehicles. Among the possible solutions to store hydrogen in such vehicles, cryogenic tanks equipped with multi-layer insulation (MLI) are the most promising to increase the amount of energy stored per unit volume. However, MLI is affected by severe deterioration when exposed to an external source of heat such as a fire following a car accident, leaving the tank unprotected and leading to failure in a relatively short time. In this work, a one-dimensional model to evaluate MLI thermal degradation when a liquid hydrogen tank is exposed to fire is presented. The relevance of taking MLI degradation into account when simulating the pressure increase due to external fire exposure is here demonstrated through the analysis of several case studies. The results show that MLI systems performance depletes within a few minutes of exposure to hydrocarbon poolfire. T2 - ICheaP 16 CY - Naples, Italy DA - 21.05.2023 KW - LH2 KW - MLI KW - Tiefkalt KW - Fire KW - Tank PY - 2023 SN - 2283-9216 VL - 2023 SP - 1 EP - 6 PB - AIDIC Servizi S.r.l. AN - OPUS4-57584 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Camplese, Davide A1 - Scarponi, Giordano Emrys A1 - Eberwein, Robert A1 - Hajhariri, Aliasghar A1 - Otremba, Frank A1 - Cozzani, Valerio T1 - Comparative performance assessment of multilayer insulation (MLI) systems for liquid hydrogen vessels in fire scenarios N2 - Multilayer Insulation (MLI) systems are a mature technology for cryogenic liquid hydrogen (LH2) tank thermal insulation. Recent tests evidenced that MLI materials may be damaged when exposed to fire, resulting in critical safety issues in the case of accidents. Thus, an innovative approach to the performance assessment of aluminum and polyester-based MLIs for LH2 tanks in fire scenarios was developed. A specific model integrating the hightemperature degradation of MLIs and the thermodynamic modeling of the tank lading was coupled to specific key performance indicators. Results of the analysis applied to a vehicle-scale tank equipped with 80 MLI layers indicate that MLI degradation and consequent tank failure may occur in less than 20 min for external shell temperatures above 1160 K in the presence of full engulfment, regardless of insulation used. Conversely, degradation does not occur earlier than 3600s below 603 and 928 K for polyester and aluminum-based MLI, respectively. KW - LH2 KW - LNG KW - Cryogenic storage tank KW - Fire KW - Insulation PY - 2025 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-630841 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2025.04.534 SN - 0360-3199 VL - 135 SP - 537 EP - 552 PB - Elsevier Ltd. AN - OPUS4-63084 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Eberwein, Robert A1 - Heßmann, Jennifer A1 - Werner, Jan A1 - Scarponi, Giordano Emrys A1 - Cozzani, Valerio A1 - Otremba, Frank T1 - Investigation of Realistic Fire Scenarios Involving Cryogenic Storage Tanks N2 - The number of vehicles using or transporting cryogenic fuels such as Liquefied Hydrogen (LH2) or Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) increases fast in the land transportation sector. Does this also entail new risks for instance from a BLEVE? A key to answer this question is to research representative fires by its characterization and its effect on the insulation. At BAM’s technical test side in Germany, a test series was started to answer this question among others. This paper presents results on a pool fire under a colorimeter, that simulates a tank. The investigation points out, that the full fire characterization approach allows to represent the fire. The findings are relevant for the investigation of a representative design fire that is applicable for the approval and improvement of tanks as well as to research accident scenarios and their consequences. T2 - Loss Prevention 2025 CY - Bologna, Italien DA - 09.06.2025 KW - LH2 KW - LNG KW - Fire KW - Tank KW - Safety PY - 2025 DO - https://doi.org/10.3303/CET25116031 SN - 2283-9216 IS - 116 SP - 181 EP - 186 PB - AIDIC AN - OPUS4-63738 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -