Explosion Simulations for the Quantitative Risk Analysis of New Energy Filling Stations

The interest about new and renewable energy is increasing to reduce the burden of problems by depletion of fossil fuels and air pollutions. For example, LNG/CNG and LPG are expected to be replaced, especially in transportation use, by HCNG mixture and DME-LPG mixture, respectively. Because these new energies are still flammable gases, it is not inherently safe from the explosion. In this research, the quantitative risk analysis for using alternative mixtures in existing recharging facilities has been studied by using three types of explosion models (TNT equivalency model, PHAST and CFD-based FLACS) to manage the risk effectively. The differences of results by models were compared against, and the practical ways of when and how to use these models were suggested. It was also predicted that conventional gas filling stations would be converted as new energy stations without additional explosion risk.