The storage and use of hydrogen poses unique challenges due to its ease of leaking as a gaseous fuel, low-energy ignition, wide range of combustible fuel-air mixtures, buoyancy, and its ability to embrittle metals that must be accounted for to ensure safe operation.

Moreover, its demand and use in industry—as rocket fuel, alternative energy storage source, coolant for electric generators in power stations, a feedstock in industrial and chemical processes including production of ammonia and methanol, etc.—has continued to increase, which has led to the increased importance of considerations of safety protocols in producing, storing, transferring, and using hydrogen.

[1] Hydrogen has one of the widest explosive/ignition mix range with air of all the gases with few exceptions such as acetylene, silane, and ethylene oxide, and in terms of minimum necessary ignition energy and mixture ratios has extremely low requirements for an explosion to occur.

[10] Inerting chambers and purging gas lines are important standard safety procedures to take when transferring hydrogen.

In order to properly inert or purge, the flammability limits must be taken into account, and hydrogen's are very different from other kinds of gases.

Incidents have occurred because inerting or purging was not sufficient, or because the introduction of air in the equipment was underestimated (e.g., when adding powders), resulting in an explosion.

[20][21] Any potential sources (like some ventilation system designs[22]) for static electricity build-up should likewise be minimized, e.g. through antistatic devices.

[23] Hot-work procedures must be robust, comprehensive, and well-enforced; and they should purge and ventilate high-areas and sample the atmosphere before work.

Since hydrogen is a lighter-than-air gas, it collects under roofs and overhangs (typically referred to as trapping sites), where it forms an explosion hazard.

[1] Therefore, one should make sure to have proper ventilation to deal with both issues should they arise, as it is generally safe to simply vent hydrogen into the atmosphere.

However, when placing and designing such ventilation systems, one must keep in mind that hydrogen will tend to accumulate towards the ceilings and peaks of structures, rather than the floor.

[1][42] The main danger with cryogenic hydrogen is what is known as BLEVE (boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion).

Because hydrogen is gaseous in atmospheric conditions, the rapid phase change together with the detonation energy combine to create a more hazardous situation.

[43] A secondary danger is the fact that many materials change from being to ductile to brittle at extremely cold temperatures, allowing new places for leaks to form.