SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Dec. 21 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Institute of Technology and Renewable Energies (ITER) of the Cabildo de Tenerife has given the green light to start the ‘LEAKWIT’ project, an innovative system through which possible hydrogen leaks from deposits can be monitored -also called hydrogen generators- -.
This project is developed jointly by a multidisciplinary public-private consortium formed by ITER, the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) and Vainsa Infraestructuras, and its execution will last until 2025.
Due to the growing interest that exists for hydrogen at present, it is expected that the system to be developed by the ‘LEAKWIT’ project can achieve a significant potential socioeconomic impact.
Specifically, it is an emerging market for which it is estimated that between 4,500 and 8,100 hydrogen plants will be required by the year 2030 in Europe, most of which should be located in Germany, Italy, France, the United Kingdom and Spain, collects a note from the corporation.
‘LEAKWIT’ will be able to carry out a leak detection in real time and continuously to obtain the location and size of the leaks in the main components of the hydrogen generation, and thus provide a risk analysis and management system.
The system to be developed will use two independent levels of leak detection.
The first of them will be based on the use of acoustic sensors for the continuous supervision of the hydrogen storage tanks and pipes present in the hydrogen plants.
At the second level, the detected leak will automatically enter a ‘Digital Twin’, that is, a virtual replica of the infrastructure, of the components that make up the hydrogen: storage tanks and pipes to carry out a simulation with the aim of verify if the temperatures and pressures in the storage tanks, as well as the flow in the pipes correspond to those registered in situ.
The ‘LEAKWIT’ project (CPP2021-008524) is funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation and the State Research Agency (10.13039/501100011033) and by the European Union within the framework of the EU Recovery Plan Next Generation EU and of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan of Spain (PRTR).
