Industrial Consequences of Hydrogen Embrittlement

Abstract: Hydrogen embrittlement is a subject of great scientific curiosity since it has detrimental effects in many industrial sectors. As an example, the website “Hydrogen tools” identifies the incidents or accidents related to the presence of hydrogen and tries to give an explanation of each problem and the measures that should be taken to avoid it. The causes may be related to equipment failure, human error, inappropriate maintenance, unsupervised procedures, unsuitable materials, etc. This highlights the need to better understand the degradation mechanisms involved with regards to the loading conditions (environment, temperature, pressure, materials, etc.), in order to establish the strategies required to avoid these problems. The aim of this chapter is to present, in a non-exhaustive way, industrial examples of the consequences of hydrogen embrittlement in metals. The sensitivity to HE may affect the size of the components, the material selection or the security measures implemented near the devices. Furthermore, in order to facilitate the development of hydrogen-related infrastructure, it is necessary to improve the design codes and standards to take into account the presence of this element in a better way. Some ongoing developments around the world on this subject will also be presented here.