Redundancy Strategies for Hydrogen Injection Into Natural Gas Infrastructure: An Analysis of System Reliability

ABSTRACT The integration of hydrogen into existing natural gas networks represents a transformative approach to enhancing the utilization of renewable energy sources. This study focuses on the reliability of systems designed for hydrogen injection into the natural gas grid. We develop a representative system configuration and compile failure/repair data for all major components, then perform a component‐level failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) with exponential‐rate assumptions to quantify subsystem and plant reliability. In the baseline (no redundancy), the overall mean time to failure (MTTF) is 186 h. Selective parallelization of pumps and compressors in Subsystems 2–5 (three units in parallel each) increases the plant‐level MTTF to ~226 h (+21%), while additional parallel units show diminishing—and eventually negative—returns due to extra failure paths (valves, piping). A severity‐probability (S–P) matrix pinpoints pumps and compressors as the dominant contributors to risk; control valves exhibit high impact but are not good candidates for redundancy, and the fresh water pump shows no benefit from duplication. These results provide practical guidance on where redundancy is worth the complexity and cost, and they outline priorities for future validation with hydrogen‐specific field data.