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NFPA 2 Hydrogen Technologies Code Technical Committee Meets
Karen Hall, National Hydrogen Association

The new NFPA Technical Committee on Hydrogen Technologies met on November 2 & 3 in Golden Colorado to begin work on the development of NFPA 2: Hydrogen Technologies Code. This document will extract the hydrogen technologies requirements of various other NFPA codes.

The Technical Committee members were assigned to groups to extract relevant information and identify gaps. NFPA has several existing codes and standards that address the use of hydrogen and hydrogen technologies, including the following:

  1. NFPA 2 Hydrogen Technologies Code 2010. NFPA’s new hydrogen project that will consolidate the requirements of all of the following documents and address any areas that the current NFPA hydrogen documents do not address.

  2. NFPA 55 Standard for the Storage, Use, and Handling of Compressed Gases and Cryogenic Fluids in Portable and Stationary Containers, Cylinders, and Tanks 2005. Gives storage, handling, and use requirements for compressed gases including hydrogen. There are two chapters in this document devoted to gaseous and liquefied hydrogen storage systems.

  3. NFPA 52 Vehicular Fuel Systems Code 2006 edition. This code covers hydrogen and natural vehicular fuel systems. These systems include storage of fuels at dispensing facilities and dispensing facility operations, design, maintenance. There are also some onboard vehicle requirements (primarily for natural gas). This code is a comprehensive code for hydrogen fueling stations.

  4. NFPA 853 Stationary Fuel Cell Power Plants 2003 Edition. This document addresses installation of stationary fuel cells and refers to NFPA 55 for the hydrogen storage requirements. The 2003 edition expands coverage to fuel cells smaller than 50 kW.

  5. NFPA 30A Code for Motor Fuel Dispensing Facilities and Repair Garages 2003 edition. Cover refueling facilities that use liquid fuels and combinations of liquid and gaseous fuels. Also covers the repair of any vehicle including vehicles using hydrogen. Refers to NFPA 52 for most gaseous fuel requirements.

  6. NFPA 70 National Electrical Code® 2002. Article 692 contains requirements for electrical safety for fuel cells.

  7. NFPA 497 Recommended Practice for the Classification of Flammable Liquids, Gases, or Vapors and of Hazardous (Classified) Locations for Electrical Installations in Chemical Process Areas 2004 edition. Gives requirements for the electrical classification of areas where hydrogen would be used or stored. Electrical classification is a critical issue and can have a significant impact on project costs.

  8. NFPA 88A Standard for Parking Structures 2002 Edition. Does not contain specific requirements for hydrogen vehicles but does not prohibit them in garages.

  9. NFPA 86 Standard for Ovens and Furnaces 2003. Contains requirements for hydrogen storage systems that are used for gas quenching operations.

  10. NFPA 5000™ Building Construction and Safety Code™ 2006. Contains construction requirements for buildings storing hydrogen. Hydrogen is not addressed directly but as a flammable gas in the hazardous material chapter.

  11. NFPA 1 Uniform Fire Code™ 2006 edition. An extract document that contains large pieces of NFPA 52 and 55 (among many other documents). The fire code is meant to address operational safety as apposed to the building code which addresses construction safety.


Key milestone dates for the code development cycles for these codes are as follows:

Document Proposal Closing Date Final date for proposal review meeting Comment Closing Date Final date for comment review meeting Final Document Issued
NFPA 2 A09 cycle 11/23/07 2/24/08 9/1/08 11/3/08 8/2/09

NFPA 52* F08 cycle 		5/26/07 8/25/07 3/2/08 5/4/08 1/25/08

NFPA 55
F08 cycle

5/26/07 8/25/07 3/2/08 5/4/08 1/25/08

NFPA 853 A09 Cycle

11/23/07 2/24/08 9/1/08 11/3/08 8/2/09

NFPA 30A
A09 Cycle

 11/23/07 2/24/08 9/1/08 11/3/08 8/2/09

NFPA 70
A08 Cycle

 11/4/05 1/21/06 10/20/06 12/9/06 8/2/07

NFPA 88A
A2010 Cycle

11/23/08 2/24/09 9/1/09 11/3/09 8/2/10


* After reviewing the timetable required to coordinate NFPA 52 and NFPA 55, the decision was reached by the chairs of the IMG and VAF committees to move NFPA 52 to the F2008 revision cycle (the same cycle same NFPA 55). This move would accomplish at least two things:

  1. It would give the task group working on the coordination effort more time to ensure that that all issues are completely addressed.
  2. It would allow NFPA 52 to extract any new requirements dealing with hydrogen storage systems that do not exist in the current edition of NFPA 55 but either are addressed in 52 or need to be addressed in 55 and 52.


Special thanks go to Carl Rivkin, Principal Chemical Engineer, Hydrogen Coordinating Group Project Manager, NFPA, who is the NFPA 2 staff liaison, for the NFPA code summaries and milestone dates.

In the event that gaps are identified, proposals will be made to the Technical Committees responsible for the appropriate codes. In this way NFPA 2 will pull together relevant hydrogen requirements without conflicting with other NFPA documents. NFPA 2 may also contain appropriate annexes and administrative data to improve its usefulness to code officials and other who use the new code.

The meeting included three technical presentations on work that is ongoing in the areas of hydrogen safety technical validation and fire safety. Future meetings will be held twice each year and continue to include technical presentations.