Inherent Safety Assessment for Offshore Chemical-based Energy Storage Systems under Hydrometeorological Hazards

Integrating new energy technologies into the offshore Oil and Gas (O&G) industry is a significant measure to reduce fossil fuel reliance and greenhouse gas emission. However, the intermittency of renewable sources poses challenges of ensuring stable electricity supply to O&G processes. Thus, it is vital to apply proper energy storage systems for enhancing the stability and efficiency of offshore production processes. Chemical-based Energy Storage Systems (CESSs) are regarded promising due to their advantages of high energy density, long-duration and transportability. Nevertheless, subjected to the potential natural hazards and harsh oceanic environment, the components of CESS may fail and lead to accidents with the hazardous material (e.g. methane, hydrogen and ammonia) leakage, even fire and explosion. Such evolved cascading event can be described as "Natech (Natural hazard triggered technological accident)". This paper presents an inherent safety assessment framework for conceptual CESS, providing a safety-oriented perspective on the sustainability potential of different alternatives. This framework assesses the CESS alternatives based on their flammability, explosibility, and complexity of processes as well as installation vulnerability exposed to potential hydrometeorological hazards. The proposed framework is demonstrated via a case study considering typical alternatives, hydrogenbased systems and ammonia-based systems. The findings of this study aim to support stakeholders in implementing effective risk management strategies, fostering the safe and sustainable deployment of CESSs in offshore industries.

Keywords: Renewable energy storage, Chemical-based energy storage system, Inherent safety, Natech, Offshore process safety.