Top 8 hydrogen myths – busted by Swagelok Central UK experts
For engineers, designers, installers, and supervisors or managers responsible for hydrogen system safety sign-off.
Introduction
Hydrogen is reshaping the future of energy, transport, and industrial operations but it comes with unique challenges. Yet its unique properties present equally unique challenges.
Misunderstandings about hydrogen’s behaviour, safety, and system requirements can put installations, personnel, and performance at risk.
This guide separates myth from fact, helping engineers, designers, installers, safety supervisors and managers gain the clarity and confidence to design, install, inspect and maintain safe, reliable hydrogen systems.
The Truth: Hydrogen is colourless, odourless, and tasteless. Even tiny leaks can be hazardous because hydrogen molecules are extremely small and diffuse quickly.
Hydrogen requires a specific testing protocol to prove safety. Many gas systems are checked with hydrostatic or nitrogen tests to prove leak tightness, but these do not reliably guarantee hydrogen integrity. Hydrogen molecules are smaller than liquid molecules and common test gases like nitrogen. Only helium or hydrogen itself can be used as a test gas to accurately verify a hydrogen system’s leak tightness.
Why it matters:
Proper fittings, assembly techniques, and thorough checks are vital for safe hydrogen systems. However, a meaningful leak check using a small-molecule gas is essential to verify system tightness. Our practical training demonstrates how even minor installation issues can compromise safety, and how following good practices eliminates these potential risks.
The Truth: True competency requires hands-on experience under real system conditions. Understanding Hydrogen challenges with all joint types, safe installation practice, troubleshooting, pressure testing, and leak detection can’t be learned from theory alone.
Why it matters:
Swagelok’s training uses a mixture of theory and practical exercises with gas panels to fault find and leak test to give real experience of looking for small molecule leaks and identifying and rectifying common installation errors to ensure participants gain practical skills and confidence. Anyone responsible for signing off safe Hydrogen installations must have a sound basis to make that judgement.The Truth: Hydrogen is lighter, diffuses faster, and ignites at lower energy levels than natural gas. It can also cause embrittlement in metals not rated for hydrogen service. Hydrogen molecules are significantly smaller than natural gas molecules, meaning leaks can occur if proper installation procedures are not followed.
Why it matters:
Correct joint selection, material choice, tubing systems, and installation practices must account for hydrogen’s unique properties to ensure safe and reliable operation.The Truth: Hydrogen is actually a non-toxic gas, but as with many flammable gases can form an explosive mix if allowed to mix in an uncontrolled way with air and then an ignition source is present. Understanding the risk means system designers make correct choices for design and system layout to minimise that risk. After good design is present, most hydrogen incidents stem from human error, poor installation, operating procedure or component selection, inadequate inspection, or incorrect system sign-off.
Why it matters:
Engineers, designers, and inspectors must have the knowledge and confidence to make safe decisions and verify system integrity.
The Truth: Not all materials are compatible with Hydrogen. Hydrogen can permeate or embrittle the wrong metals. Even metals that are highly suited to arduous oil and gas applications are highly susceptible to Hydrogen embrittlement. Selection of suitable materials for pressure holding systems is essential.
Why it matters:
Choosing hydrogen compatible metals and non-metals and understanding their installation ensures safe and reliable operation.
The Truth: Any system leak needs to be risk assessed. Uncontrolled mixing of hydrogen into air creates the conditions for fire or explosion when ignition occurs. Leaks into confined spaces become critical quickly by creating flammable conditions. Low ignition energy means even static discharge can trigger ignition. Enough small leaks add up
Why it matters:
It is important to understand flammability and explosion risks with Hydrogen as this will affect selection of the safest joint type, system layout. Even a well-designed system requires proper assembly, inspection, and leak testing prevent small issues from becoming safety incidents.
The Truth: Installing fittings on gas systems should never be pulled up by ‘feel’ as this is inconsistent and affected by material choice, wall thickness and diameter of the tubing. Manufacturers installation instructions should be followed, and additional points are often added for critical small molecules like Hydrogen. Under tightening and overtightening are often causes for system leaks that are avoidable.
Why it matters:
Hands-on training teaches correct assembly techniques for long-term system integrity. Safety is not a compromise anyone can afford.
The Truth: Hydrogen has been used globally at an industrial scale for over a hundred years. In that time a lot of experience has been developed in production and handling of hydrogen system. Newer higher-pressure solutions for Hydrogen have meant there is a need for a range of solutions depending on the application but even these solutions have existed for decades.
It is important to know how all common joint types perform with Hydrogen and to derisk a system by choosing the technology to best serve the application. As with many flammable gases, Hydrogen can be safely used when systems are properly risk assessed, designed, installed, and maintained by trained professionals. Safety is engineered into the system, it’s not automatic.
Why it matters:
Correct selection of jointing methods in a system can reduce the chance of leakage significantly and the ensuring installation teams are competent to install and recognise the range of options to join different technologies at interface points. Hands-on training builds the knowledge and confidence to safely work with hydrogen
Why it matters:
Correct selection of jointing methods in a system can reduce the chance of leakage significantly and the ensuring installation teams are competent to install and recognise the range of options to join different technologies at interface points. Hands-on training builds the knowledge and confidence to safely work with hydrogen.
Conclusion
Hydrogen is an exciting, sustainable technology, but safety starts with knowledge. By separating myths from facts, engineers, designers, installers, and QA/QC inspectors can:
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Reduce risk of leaks, failures, and incidents
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Make informed judgments about system safety
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Apply real-world skills to hydrogen tube systems
Swagelok Central UK provides training that goes beyond theory, hands-on, realistic, and safety-focused, giving professionals the confidence to design, install, inspect, and sign off hydrogen systems safely.
From theory to practice: Building hydrogen competency
For teams who need to go deeper than theory, why not explore our specialist training course, Swagelok® Tubing System Training Program - Hydrogen Applications, which combines theory with hands on fault finding, pressure testing and leak detection on real gas panels, giving your team practical skills and confidence to sign off hydrogen systems safely.
