In the mid-2000s, NASA collaborated with a team of university engineers to develop a way to visually detect hydrogen leaks. After several iterations, the effort resulted in a tape that quickly changes color in the presence of hydrogen gas. The patented technology is now commercially available to the many industries that use this highly flammable and hard-to-detect element, including oil refineries, welders and chemical plants.
Since developing the first engines to run on liquid hydrogen and oxygen in the 1960s, NASA has helped to pioneer many advances in handling cryogenic liquids, from insulation to cooling systems. But hydrogen gas, which evaporates through the tiniest cracks, was always hard to detect, until the space agency teamed up with university engineers to create a tape that changes color when exposed to hydrogen. It hit the market in 2013.
Learn more about how NASA helped develop technology that impacts hydrogen detection tape within your city's manufacturing environment!