Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Safety

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NHA Summary of the ISO Roundtable on Global Harmonization
Including discussions on NGVs and GTRs
Karen Hall, National Hydrogen Association

NHA staff attended the ISO Roundtable on global harmonization of regulations, codes and standards for gaseous fuels and vehicles, held in Geneva, Switzerland on January 10.

The initiative was initially proposed by the World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Working Party 29). According to an ISO announcement, the purpose of the Roundtable was to "facilitate the early commercialization of hydrogen and natural gas fuel and vehicle technologies by examining opportunities to remove potential technical barriers to trade associated with non-harmonized regulations, codes and standards in this area."

The intent, according to the announcement, was to "create awareness and willingness, on the part of key players in this important new energy sector, to develop solutions that will assist in achievement towards the important goal of one product, one standard, one test."

The proceedings are posted on the ISO website at: http://www.iso.org/iso/en/commcentre/events/2006/roundtable.html.

In response to the readers of the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Safety Report who have indicated interest in this event, the NHA is publishing a summary of the meeting based on staff notes. Readers are encouraged to review the formal proceedings.

Summary-Morning Session
Alan Bryden, ISO Secretary-General, opened the Roundtable. He noted that ISO and IEC Standards have the potential to be adopted nationally, making them available to regulators. His views can also be seen on a recent publication called "Designing International Standards to Support Global Trade," available on the ISO website at http://www.iso.org/iso/en/commcentre/presentations/
ga/gaopen/2003open/ga03open-bryden-en.pdf.

The meeting was facilitated by Kevin McKinley, ISO Deputy Secretary-General, and attended by decision-makers from multinational automotive, energy and infrastructure companies, as well as high-level government representatives. The audience was evenly divided between those who considered themselves part of the natural gas industry and those who considered themselves part of the hydrogen industry. Several speakers made the point that we should all consider ourselves part of the "gaseous fuels" industry, as the issues we face are the same.

Christoph Albus, HFCV Chair at UN/ECE Transport, noted that although the Global Technical Regulation (GTR) process is relatively new, five GTRs have been developed so far on a variety of vehicles topics. (For the GTRs recently adopted by UN/ECE WP 29, visit: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/automotive/unece/gtr.htm) GTRs in general cover test procedures and performance requirements. Mr. Albus indicated that GTRs should work with both Type-Approval and Self-Certification systems. Some countries, including most European ones use Type-Approval for certifying vehicle safety, while other countries, including the U.S. use Self-Certification.

Frederic Barth of Air Liquide, indicated that the gaseous fuels market is global, and therefore GTRs make sense. He further indicated that the regulations should state only essential requirements, with compliance provided by globally harmonized standards (ISO and IEC).

Speakers in favor of global harmonization indicated this was necessary to enable industry to get vehicles deployed quickly and economically in world markets.

Summary-Afternoon Session
In the afternoon, the audience was divided into two panels: Automotive (including natural gas and hydrogen topics), and Energy and Infrastructure (also, NG and H2). I attended the Energy and Infrastructure Panel.

During the Energy and Infrastructure group’s discussion, an overwhelming majority indicated that GTRs are a long-term goal for those things that are regulated (such as hydrogen supply), and that the near-term emphasis must be on developing consensus International Standards upon which regulations or codes could be built. The majority of participants indicated it would be prudent to attempt to create GTRs for things that are not currently regulated (such as siting of refuelling stations, which in the US is covered by building and fire codes). One participant indicated it would be desirable to regulate these as a single design and single certification procedure which could be used in all areas. The majority did not agree, again emphasizing the role of consensus International Standards upon which different jurisdictions could use to resolve any discrepancies. Participants also cautioned against creating regulations in advance of consensus standards, as regulations can be more difficult to change once in place. Putting regulations before standards could actually hinder the timely and economical deployment of infrastructure. Examples were given where this has been an demonstrated issue with natural gas vehicles and the ethanol infrastructure.

The two groups were reunited for a wrap up and recommendations. A recommendation was made by Randy Dey, Chairman of ISO TC 197, to form an independent body for global harmonization to facilitate better communication and cooperation among the existing players: UN, regulators, ISO, industry, and standards development organizations. This recommendation raised many questions and comments from the audience:

It seems that WP 29 already had such a role. If ISO and the UN share this concern, who could be independent?
Who can be independent of all the existing players, and still be effective. IPHE has a Codes & Standards Working Group? This facilitation could conceivably be performed as part of their mission.

Advocates of the independent body indicated the need to formalize "something" to ensure the proper level of cooperation among the parties. This raised additional discussion about whether this would be best achieved by an independent body or a joint body of the existing players. No conclusion was reached by the participants.