Liangliang Cheng leads international staff exchange project on hydrogen safety

Liangliang Cheng, of the Engineering and Technology Institute Groningen (ENTEG) at the University of Groningen, is coordinating a consortium that has been awarded a €950,000 grant under the HORIZON-MSCA-2025-SE-01-01 Staff Exchange programme. The project, titled "Source Term Estimation and Consequence Analysis of Hydrogen Leakages in Hydrogen-Related Industrial Processes and Community Facilities," focuses on advancing hydrogen safety through international collaboration and knowledge exchange.

Bridging the gap in hydrogen leak detection and risk assessment
Hydrogen plays a crucial role as both a fuel source and a component in numerous industrial sectors and community facilities. However, it is a highly flammable gas, and even minor leakages can result in fires or explosions with catastrophic consequences. While technologies exist to detect hydrogen leaks, current systems cannot simultaneously and in real time identify the location and severity of leaks, predict their evolution, and assess associated risks and consequences. These advanced tasks, known as Source Term Estimation (STE) and Consequence Analysis, are essential for proactive risk management. They enable faster, more informed responses to reduce the likelihood of explosions and fires, mitigate injury and loss of life, and minimize manufacturing downtime and operational disruptions.

To address this critical gap, the proposed project aims to establish long-term, international collaborations among researchers in the UK, Europe, China, and the USA. The consortium brings together experts in data and systems science, artificial intelligence (AI), computational fluid dynamics (CFD), hydrogen energy, and hydrogen safety. The project will involve cross-disciplinary and cross-sector research through structured researcher secondments and knowledge transfer activities. Novel AI-driven and data and system science-based methods will be developed to enable real-time STE and consequence analysis. Experimental and field studies will be conducted to validate these methods and demonstrate their practical relevance and industrial impact. The outcomes of this initiative are expected to overcome the limitations of existing technologies and offer scalable solutions for real-time hydrogen leakage analysis across a wide range of industrial and community applications.

A global consortium for cross-disciplinary research
The consortium includes institutions from the UK, Europe, China, and the USA, such as Queen Mary University of London, Kemijski Institut, University of West Attica, East China University of Science and Technology, Shandong University, Hyenergy Tech, and Wanergy Corporation. The ENTEG team will receive €350,000 of the total grant, facilitating researcher mobility, knowledge transfer, and cross-sector collaboration.