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

Hydrogen can be the key to decarbonization, 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, the comparison of two different approaches is proposed. Time-Based maintenance is a consolidated technique that programs the operations based on the reliability data of the pieces of equipment. On the other hand, the Risk-Based Maintenance approach leads to planning the maintenance activities based on the risk evaluation. The line supplying hydrogen to the furnace is the case study considered in the analysis. The advantages of applying a methodology based on risk evaluation when handling a safety-critical system are highlighted.