We at Chemipetro manufacture flanges and pipe fittings for use within the petrochemical industry. Our products such as pipe flanges are manufactured from various grades of steel, such as duplex and super duplex, specifically to meet the demanding requirements of the chemicals that are currently processed.

Oil is becoming a scarce commodity and at some time in the future it will be necessary to develop other types of energy sources which can be used as fuels. These alternatives however will provide their own technical problems and challenges which will have to be dealt with.

One such fuel could be hydrogen, which may become a major fuel in the next 50 years. If this was to happen then it would be necessary to develop large scale production, storage and transport infrastructure for this.

However when hydrogen comes into contact with steel it can have a deleterious effect. Hydrogen atoms are the smallest atomic structure and are small enough to penetrate the crystalline structure of steel. This can cause the steel to become brittle and develop fractures. Also, when exerted to high pressures, pockets of hydrogen can develop causing the steel to fracture.

To prevent this happening it is currently necessary to introduce a barrier layer to prevent the hydrogen coming into contact with the steel. Other techniques and materials will also have to be developed so that these systems can be easily manufactured on the scale which will be required.

So in the future a duplex pipe will no longer be a simple steel tube but will have to be in itself a sophisticated piece of engineering.