Hydrogen in Glass Sector: A Comparison between Risk-Based Maintenance and Time-Based Maintenance Approaches

Hydrogen can be the key to decarbonisation, even for energy-intensive industries. The glass sector, for instance, burns natural gas to reach high temperatures necessary to melt the raw materials, leading to a considerable amount of CO2 emissions. Introducing hydrogen in a new sector brings many challenges in technological development, but of no less importance are the safety issues due to its hazardous properties. Hydrogen is highly flammable and can interact with many metals. Avoiding hydrogen leaks or, even worse, preventing catastrophic losses should be a priority: adopting proper maintenance planning is an effective means. In this study, a comparison of two different maintenance approaches is proposed in a line supplying hydrogen to the furnace case study. Time-based maintenance is a consolidated technique that programs the operations based on the reliability of the data on the pieces of equipment. On the other hand, the Risk-Based Maintenance approach leads to planning the maintenance activities based on the risk evaluation. Applying this approach to a hydrogen facility for the first time represents the novelty of this study. The advantages of adopting a methodology based on risk evaluation when handling a safety-critical system are highlighted. Keywords: Hydrogen, Glass manufacturing, Maintenance, Risk-Based Maintenance, Time-Based Maintenance, Hydrogen Safety.