NFPA Sets Research Agenda for Hydrogen Infrastructure Development

The following information is available on the NFPA website, at www.nfpa.org/assets/files//PDF/Research/Hydrogen.pdf. It is being reproduced here with permission from NFPA as a courtesy to interested parties in the hydrogen energy community.

A Research Agenda for Hydrogen Infrastructure Safety

Background
As the development of hydrogen technology reaches the commercial stage, the safety community is exploring the issues surrounding the physical infrastructure, which is and will be constructed to support the widespread use of this technology. The NFPA publishes several codes and standards that directly or as surrogates address the use, handling, and storage of hydrogen.

Among them is NFPA 52 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Vehicular Fuel Systems Code, which, for lack of a specific code for fueling facilities for hydrogen vehicles, is the reference that fire and safety authorities currently turn to for guidance. In 2005, this code is undergoing a complete revision to include requirements for hydrogen fueling operations as well as onboard vehicle safety requirements and there are many technical issues which have arisen during this revision process that reflect overall safety concerns of the community.

The Fire Protection Research Foundation, an affiliate of NFPA, was established in 1982 to enable research projects designed to address problems associated with fire and other hazards, with a particular focus on those addressed by NFPA codes and standards. The Foundation serves as a catalyst for collaborative research and development projects on a wide array of fire safety concerns including research on halon alternatives, flammable and combustible liquids storage, and other fire and safety related topics. The Foundation does not have research facilities of its own, but plays the role of fund developer and program manager for projects which then have a direct communication link to NFPA' s 80 000 members and an early impact on the codes and standards process.

Development of a Research Agenda
On January 25, 2004, the Foundation convened a research agenda planning workshop designed to define a research agenda and road map for hydrogen safety. Members of key NPFA Technical Committees, the fire service, research community, government agencies, and those commercially involved in hydrogen technology were in attendance. The focus of the day-long discussion was on safety regulation of hydrogen technology as it reaches commercialization. Various research and commercialization efforts underway were described, as were the needs emerging in the user community (authorities having jurisdiction). Participants discussed the bridge between these two elements and through presentations, discussion, and written agenda items, developed a prioritized research agenda designed to enable the introduction of hydrogen technology in the codes and standards environment.

Research Prioritization
Appendix 1 lists over 50 research items identified by participants as important in the path toward acceptance of this new technology by the regulatory community. The six top priority items identified by the group were:

• Assembling the safety requirements currently under development for hydrogen in a variety of storage and occupancy situations into a user-friendly document.
  



• Stationary Fuel Cell Siting - appropriate spatial separation of hydrogen fuel used for stationary fuel cell systems in equipment enclosures.
  



• Vehicle Refueling Stations - appropriate siting distances, fire separations, and other protection features for stations for vehicle refueling with hydrogen and other fuels.
  



• Metal Hydride Storage Safety - appropriate safety precautions for metal hydrides in a variety of storage configurations and occupancies
  Safety of Enclosed Parking Structures - determination of appropriate LFL criteria; assessment of leak rates, and appropriate mitigation/venting strategies
  



• Fire Service and AHJ Education - to include a regulatory guide, compendium of case studies of installations, and guidance on acceptable risk assessment tools and techniques.

Next Steps
As the hydrogen community moves towards the commercialization of this technology, the concerns of the safety regulatory community must be addressed. Through the development of information and education in response to the above issues, codes and standards committees will be better equipped to develop appropriate regulation of the safety aspects of this new technology, and facilitate its safe introduction. The Fire Protection Research Foundation will work with the hydrogen community to implement these prioritized research needs.

Research Needs

• Development of standardized and acceptable risk assessment techniques and tools
  



• A hydrogen incident investigation database
  



• Compilation and removal of redundancies of all NFPA codes and standards provisions related to hydrogen
  



• Study of international codes and standards for application to US
  



• Data to inform requirements for siting distances for fuel cell storage in remote locations - compartmentalization, hazards, fire ratings required
  



• Hazard analysis of accidental discharge of metal hydrides
  



• Ventilation requirements for residential garages
  



• Ignitability limits - data supports a higher LFL
  



• Refueling stations - separation distances for mixed fuel operations - translation of Sandia research into codes and standards provisions
  



• Integrating performance based approaches into codes
  



• Training seminars for AHJs
  



• Gaseous emissions from vehicles - hazard analysis - toxicity, ventilation requirements
  



• Metal hydride storage - hazard analysis
  



• Hydrogen generation - siting and infrastructure safety
  



• Comparative risk to other fuel types - LNG, LPG
  



• Transportation safety of metal hydrides - development of provisions
  



• Leak detection technology
  



• Leak rates of components
  



• Test methodologies for tank storage
  



• Homeland security - system vulnerability to terrorist acts
  



• Maintenance of vehicles
  



• Parking vehicles in enclosed spaces
  



• Mobile refueling operations
  



• Maintenance of fuel cells and fuel systems in buildings - safe practices
  



• HAZMAT response procedures for incidences
  



• Fire service education for safe practices related to indoor system siting, indoor fuel facilities manufacturing facilities, and service for systems in buildings
  



• Non pre-mixed gas phase hydrogen jet and plume behavior, ignited and un-ignited, moment and buoyancy dominate around structures and people
  



• Gas phase hydrogen behavior in enclosures a) sensors/detectors
  



• Liquid hydrogen behavior
  



• Hydrogen gas quality for PEM and other likely to commercialized fuel cells (long term performance, durability, maintainability)
  



• Fueling station components and subsystems long term durability under normal operating conditions (determined by accelerated testing)
  



• Non-transportation related safety requirements for hydrogen/fuel cell systems
  



• Codes and standards harmonization
  



• Performance based codes
  



• Effect of catastrophic failure on architectural systems (consider homeland security implications)
  



• Behavior of hydrogen leaked within structures , (size and location of combustible cloud)
  



• Behavior of hydrogen leaked from storage facilities (small storage units less than 2000 sf)
  



• Ignition behavior of hydrogen-air mixtures (under what conditions is mixture ignitable and what ignition source is required)
  



• Small flame resistance testing of composite tanks (rather than or complimentary to bonfire testing)
  



• Work off CNG instead of 50A (relative fuel hazards)
  



• Refueling for indoor industrial applications that allow for easier access to the process
  



• Add hydrogen generators - both reformer based and electrolyzers
  



• Characterization of component/equipment failures (i.e. release rates) to link to Sandia labs work on impact of releases
  



• Hydrogen leak detection
  



• Hydrogen fire detection requirements/methods for dispensing stations
  



• Use of risk analysis
  



• Condense hydrogen codes and standards for simplicity
  



• Separation requirements for residential garages
  



• Siting of hydrogen storage for stationary backup fuel cell applications (including indoor stationary applications.