- The German National Hydrogen Strategy (NWS) envisions a transition towards a hydrogen-based energy grid. However, due to the material incompatibility of existing pipeline infrastructure for amounts of hydrogen higher than 10 cmol/mol, many system components of the existing grid must be replaced with significant costs and considerable time investments. Given these constraints, the admixture of hydrogen into natural gas (NG) to create a hydrogen-enriched NG blend has been designated as a transitional technology. The NWS supports this approach on a regional and time-limited basis, but clearly states that it is not intended as a permanent solution.
Nevertheless, the conversion to a fully hydrogen-based grid is expected to take several decades. During this transitional phase, precise process analytical monitoring of hydrogen amounts in the NG blend is essential to ensure both energy efficiency via calorific value control and operational safety. These procedures require cost-effective,The German National Hydrogen Strategy (NWS) envisions a transition towards a hydrogen-based energy grid. However, due to the material incompatibility of existing pipeline infrastructure for amounts of hydrogen higher than 10 cmol/mol, many system components of the existing grid must be replaced with significant costs and considerable time investments. Given these constraints, the admixture of hydrogen into natural gas (NG) to create a hydrogen-enriched NG blend has been designated as a transitional technology. The NWS supports this approach on a regional and time-limited basis, but clearly states that it is not intended as a permanent solution.
Nevertheless, the conversion to a fully hydrogen-based grid is expected to take several decades. During this transitional phase, precise process analytical monitoring of hydrogen amounts in the NG blend is essential to ensure both energy efficiency via calorific value control and operational safety. These procedures require cost-effective, robust, and reliable sensor technologies capable of real-time, in situ/on-site quantification of hydrogen amounts in NG.
In response to this need, we have advanced a physical sensing approach utilizing an oscillating cantilever in collaboration with Truedyne Sensor AG. This sensor system enables quantification of hydrogen amounts, direct calorific value determination as well as display of beneficial gas properties, like density, viscosity, and thermal conductivity. Moreover, the enhanced cantilever system enables direct physical sensing and can also be operated in a quasi-binary mode.
We performed comparative evaluations against two benchmark sensor systems to validate the developed technology. One utilizes chemical sensing, and the other operates on thermal conductivity measurements for hydrogen quantification. Through standardized testing, we demonstrated that the cantilever-based sensor offers both high effectiveness and competitive performance compared to current state-of-the-art technologies for accurate hydrogen detection in natural gas and precise determination of its calorific value.…

