H2 and Materials interaction

H2 economy is emerging as one of the major players in sustainable energy solution. In this context, H2 is plays dual role. On one hand, electrolyzing water can provide cleanest form of H2, as potentially endless and free energy source from green energy. On the other hand, as H2 is one the smallest element, carrying H2 is practically difficult as this elements permeates through structures easily and damage the integrity of the structural materials. Under this project, we are developing and advancing research infrastructure in VTT to cater the ongoing and upcoming challenges that the vintage and the novel materials will face during and post this energy transition. We are tackling this problem from various ends, namely, a. how hydrogen will affect concrete structure for storage and other application
b. how hydrogen will affect various metallic and alloy infrastructure from transport and usage point
c. how CRM plays role in this dynamics
d. how can test and characterize these material damages effectively using AI and materials acceleration platform
e. to develop and understand the simulation potential to predict materials degradation behavior and performance, using state-of-the-art simulation techniques and beyond
f. how safe and sustainable these actions by design and how novel materials can be deployed to electrolyzers, minimizing CRM

We are developing different tools to checks and balances the detrimental effect of H2 on the load bearing capacity of structural materials used across the value chain of the future hydrogen economy and infrastructure

1. Hydrogen tribology is one of interesting and demanding area: VTT has concretized the plan to procure a Hydrogen tribometer. internal report
2. There no existing literature on comprehensive understanding on interaction between concrete and hydrogen. We have internal publication and stronghold for future infrastructure development. internal report
3. We have developed an unique capacity by demonstrating small punch test under pressurized hydrogen on small coupon samples. This will allow us to estimate mechanical performance under hydrogen atmosphere, for old repurposed components and novel alloys. will be presented in SSTC 2025, Freiburg, Germany
4. We are using AI and ML to quantify the small punch test results and using this to model the materials behavior with our integrated computational materials engineering. presented in ACCELERATE 2024
5. Extensively developed workflow to efficiently characterize materials using electron microscopy, under the tag name of Materials Acceleration Platform (MAP), in Image-Map segment. This aims in using AI and ML models to segmentize and identify the defects in manufacturing which can be detrimental for structural applications. Running efforts extend in automatic detection of fracture feature from fracture surface to establish a new method of materials performance index in fatigue failure. presented in Electron Microcopy Congress 2025, Copenhagen, DN,