Competitor analysis of hydrogen sensing systems

Abstract

There is significant demand and focus in today's world on the potential use of hydrogen in the market. It could potentially be a suitable alternative for fossil fuels. Hydrogen is used extensively for a variety of purposes in major industries such as refineries for hydro- desulphurization and hydrocracking operations. In ammonia production it reacts with nitrogen to produce ammonia, in metallic ore reduction, hydrogen is commercially used to procure tungsten from its ore, and various other applications. Hydrogen is also used as a searching gas, as a coolant, as a reducing agent, and as an energy carrier in industries [1-3]. Hydrogen as gas has numerous unique properties which make it stand apart from all the other traditional fossil fuels that are being used.

Hydrogen being a colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas which is flammable, can’t be identified or recognized by the human senses and needs to be detected by other means so that one could quantify its concentration if present. The need to estimate and determine the concentration of hydrogen present is essential so that it can help prevent any potential explosions with the mixing of hydrogen in the air as hydrogen is flammable and there could be potential hazards and explosions [1-3]. Measuring the concentration of hydrogen and its detection has a long history which began over 100 years ago, where it started with the measurement of hydrogen at filling stations for airships and since then there has been an increasing demand and a continuous need for a faster, better accuracy, and a much more reliable and selective device to detect the hydrogen gas in various verticals and areas of the industries for the continuous monitoring of the concentration levels of hydrogen gas. Thus, in this emerging hydrogen economy, the detection of hydrogen leaks and the measurement of the concentration of hydrogen in the atmosphere are necessary during production, storage, and transformation. Therefore, sensors will be used for safety monitoring of hydrogen gas in production plants, storage tanks, pipelines, and so on.

This article gives an insight on all the hydrogen sensors that are available in the market, a comparison between all the different hydrogen sensors with different attributes such as stability, sensitivity, response time, etc., and the different manufacturers who produce this sensor [1-3].