January 2008 Safety Report
NextEnergy Hosts Codes & Standards Conference
Karen Hall, National Hydrogen Association
ISO TC 197 WG5 Report
Karen Hall, National Hydrogen Association
ISO TC 197 Update – Gaseous Hydrogen – Fuelling Stations
Karen Hall, National Hydrogen Association
I-Code Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Proposals - 2007/2008 Development Cycle
Kyle Gibeault, National Hydrogen Association and Darren Meyers, Hydrogen Industry Panel on Codes (HIPOC) contributing
Hydrogen Safety Course Announcement
Karen Hall, National Hydrogen Association
Hydrogen Safety Best Practices Manual
Antonio Ruiz, U.S. Department of Energy
SAE J2579 for Vehicular Hydrogen Systems to be Published in January
Glenn Schleffler, President, GWS Solutions of Tolland
UK Announces Launch of a Unique Hydrogen Testing Facility
Stuart Hawksworth, Head of Explosion Safety, Health and Safety Laboratory
National Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Codes & Standards Coordinating Committee Teleconference - December 2007 Minutes
Russell Hewett, NREL
Did You Know?
Michigan Hydrogen Rules Move Forward
Marcia Jo Poxson, Waste & Hazardous Material Division, DEQ
NextEnergy Hosts Codes & Standards Conference
Karen Hall, National Hydrogen Association
On November 28, 2007, NextEnergy hosted their 2nd annual Hydrogen Codes and Standards event. This conference provided useful updates on many of the national and international activities to develop codes and standards for hydrogen and fuel cells.
The presentations from the event have been posted onto the NextEnergy website. To download these presentations, please click on the hyperlinks below, or visit the NextEnergy website atwww.nextenergy.org/events/h2cs_11-28-07.asp.
2007 Hydrogen Codes and Standards Conference
- Permitting Hydrogen Fueling Stations: DOE Initiative
Jim Ohi, Senior Project Leader, Hydrogen Technologies and Systems, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
- NFPA Hydrogen Technology Committee
Dave McLean, Chief Operating Officer, NextEnergy Center
- Codes and Standards: ICC, HIPOC and CGA
Tom Joseph, Business Development Manager, Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.
- NHA Activities in International Standards
Karen Hall, Vice President of Technical Operations, National Hydrogen Association
- Status of SAE FCV Committee Activities: Developing Standards for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Vehicles (FCVs)
Glenn W. Scheffler, Chairman, SAE Safety Working Group
- Hydrogen Standards Update
Julie Cairns, Project Manager, Standards, CSA America
- Overview of ASME Hydrogen Codes and Standards Development
John Koehr, Director of C&S Technology, ASME
- Building Public Safety Consensus: The DOE Hydrogen Program: Education Activities
Marylynn Placet, Manager, Energy Policy and Planning Group, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
- Michigan’s Hydrogen Rules
Marcia Poxson, Engineer, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality
- Hydrogen Safety Panel: Safety Planning, Practices and Lessons Learned
Steven C. Weiner, Program Manager, Energy and Environment Directorate, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
- Applying Codes and Standards Systematically
Paul Buehler, Customer Operations Manager, Hydrogen Codes and Logistics, Plug Power Inc.
- Hazardous Area Emergency Alarm Systems
Jim Parker, President, Ino-Tek
ISO TC 197 WG5 Report
Karen Hall, National Hydrogen Association
Livio Gambone, Convenor of the ISO/TC 197 Joint WG 5, has announced his intent to hold a meeting on February 28, 2008 at the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo, Japan (during the FC Expo).
In accordance with Mr. Gambone’s WG 5 report at the last TC 197 Plenary meeting in Montecatini Terme (Nov. 8, 2007), the Working Group needs to commence working on the CD to incorporate those technical issues that were deferred prior to the publication of the document, ISO 17268 (Compressed hydrogen surface vehicle refuelling connection devices).
ISO TC 197 Update – Gaseous Hydrogen – Fuelling Stations
Karen Hall, National Hydrogen Association
ISO/TC 197 has recently circulated the results of voting on ISO/DTS 20012, Gaseous hydrogen—Fuelling stations.
Japan, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States voted to disapprove the document. Spain and Switzerland abstained. The twelve remaining P-member countries voted to approve the document. A minimum of 66.66% of ISO/TC 197 P-members voting must agree to the publication of the technical specification. As abstentions are not counted, 12 of 16 voting members voted to approve the document, providing a 75% approval rate.
Eleven of eighteen P-member countries provided comments with their vote. The ISO/TC 197 Secretariat has circulated the comments that accompanied the vote. This 138 page document contains 134 pages of comments, mostly technical in nature.
The Chair of ISO/TC 197 in consultation with the Secretariat and the convener of ISO/TC 197 WG 11 has examined the results of voting and comments. The Chair has taken the decision to proceed to the publication of the Technical Specification after an attempt has been made to resolve some of the comments - consisting of items of importance for which consensus should be reasonably easy to reach. These comments will be looked at by ISO/TC 197 WG 11.
The Chair of ISO/TC 197 is encouraging an increased participation of experts in WG 11 which is developing international standard ISO 20012 Gaseous hydrogen — Fuelling stations.
P-member Countries have been requested to consult with their stakeholders from the fueling infrastructure (manufacturers, integrators, regulators) and vehicle OEMs sectors to seek their interest in participating in this project.
US experts are asked to please respond by e-mail to Debbie Angerman, US TAG Administrator for ISO TC 197 no later than January 23 if you are interested in being or naming an additional expert(s) willing to participate in this work.
Experts in other countries are encouraged to contact your national TAG or mirror group administrator.
Nominations are to be forwarded to the ISO/TC 197 Secretariat by31 January 2008.
I-Code Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Proposals - 2007/2008 Development Cycle
Kyle Gibeault, National Hydrogen Association and Darren Meyers, Hydrogen Industry Panel on Codes (HIPOC) contributing
The monograph and hearing schedule for the Public Hearings of the 2007/2008 ICC Code Development Cycle are now available online. The hearings are scheduled for February 17-March 2, 2008 at Palm Springs Convention Center in Palm Springs, California.
The monograph includes all of the code changes that will be reviewed at the Public Hearings. It is available online at:
http://www.iccsafe.org/cs/codes/2007-08cycle/ProposedChanges
Code change proposals related to hydrogen (identified below) are likely to be heard Friday, February 29, 2008. Please note however, that the Public Hearing schedule provides a tentative timetable for when specific code changes will be reviewed. Each code change hearing will begin immediately upon completion of the prior hearing, which means that some codes may be reviewed earlier than currently scheduled. The hearing schedule is available online at:
http://www.iccsafe.org/cs/codes/2007-08cycle/Hearing_Schedule.pdf
The following are proposed code changes that have been identified by HIPOC as relevant to the hydrogen and fuel cell community. There are 10 hydrogen-related proposals to be considered in the 2007/2008 ICC Code Development Cycle – nine for the International Fire Code (IFC) and one for the International Building Code (IBC):
- G28-07/08*, Canopies used to shelter dispensing operations shall not be
considered Group H (IBC)
- F100-07/08, Affecting Supervision of detectors in VRLA battery cabinets (IFC)
- F231-07/08, To clarify reference to Ch. 30, 32 and NFPA 55 (IFC)
- F232-07/08, To delete outdoor public assembly setback from T2209.3.1 (IFC)
- F233-07/08, To add reference to DIN EN 1081-2004 for ESD (IFC)
- F234-07/08, Adding provisions for indoor fast-fill hydrogen fuel dispensing (IFC)
- F235-07/08, To add reference to UL2075-2007, Standard for gas/vapor detection (IFC)
- F261-07/08, Proposes a definition of “bulk” hydrogen storage and NFPA 55 (IFC)
- F282-07/08, To clarify references for “bulk” flammable gas storage vs. H2 motor fuel- dispensing operations (IFC)
- F286-07/08, To add a new “bulk” flammable gas storage and setback table (IFC)
* This proposal is on the agenda of the IFC Code Development Committee. See the tentative hearing order for the IFC Code Development Committee.
For more information on International Code Development, visit:
http://www.iccsafe.org/news/pdf/factssheet.pdf
For more information on the 2007/2008 code development cycle, visit:
http://www.iccsafe.org/cs/codes/2007-08cycle/index.html
Hydrogen Safety Course Announcement
Karen Hall, National Hydrogen Association
The Third European Summer School on Hydrogen Safety will be held at the University of Ulster (Belfast, UK) from 21 - 30 July, 2008. This Summer School is funded by the European Commission under the HyCourse project (March 2006 - February 2010). The topical content of the School covers the whole spectrum of activities of the European Network of Excellence HySafe “Safety of Hydrogen as an Energy Carrier” and complies with the International Curriculum on Hydrogen Safety Engineering. The state-of-the art in Hydrogen Safety will be covered from fundamentals to applications and topics include: hydrogen release, mixing, and distribution; thermal, pressure and missile effects from fires and explosions; development and validation of mitigation techniques; safety assessment and risk analysis; and standards, guidelines and legal requirements.
Applications for Keynote speakers are being taken until 20th January. For further information, please visithttp://www.engj.ulst.ac.uk/esshs/3rdesshs/3rdesshsindex.php
Hydrogen Safety Best Practices Manual
Antonio Ruiz, U.S. Department of Energy
Dear Colleague,
I am pleased to announce the launch of the Hydrogen Safety Best Practices Manual. This easy to use, web based manual is intended to communicate the extensive historical knowledge and experience related to the safe handling and use of hydrogen.
Earlier this year, a group of hydrogen and safety experts from industry, government, and academia, including members of the international community, was invited to preview the manual and provide comments. We received an excellent responsew, and the feedback from this review helped us to refine the original materials into a more comprehensive and precise final product. The Hydrogen Safety Best Practices Manual is now accessible athttp://h2bestpractices.org.
Promoting safety and providing accurate information to those involved in the research, development, demonstration, and deployment of hydrogen technologies is critical to those of us working to advance the use of hydrogen. We invite you to visit H2BestPractices.org and explore its contents. In addition, we welcome your feedback so that we may continue to keep the manual a current, useful resource. Thank you for your interest and support.
Sincerely,
Antonio Ruiz
Technology Development Manager
Hydrogen Program
U.S. Department of Energy
SAE J2579 for Vehicular Hydrogen Systems to be Published in January
Glenn Schleffler, President, GWS Solutions of Tolland
The SAE FCV Safety Working Group has been addressing fuel cell vehicle (FCV) safety for over 8 years. The initial document produced by the working group was SAE J2578 in 2002. SAE J2578 has been valuable to FCV development with regard to the identification of hazards and the definition of countermeasures to mitigate these hazards such that FCVs can be operated in the same manner as conventional gasoline internal combustion engine (ICE)-powered vehicles.
The SAE FCV Safety Working Group has now produced another document, SAE J2579, for vehicular hydrogen systems. The document was developed in cooperation with other organizations such as CSA America and Japanese Automobile Research Institute (JARI) to address long-term real-world system safety while still facilitating rapid advances by the industry.
While SAE J2579 applies to all types of hydrogen storage and handling systems, the initial focus of this document is compressed hydrogen storage, as most FCVs currently use this form of storage. Systems-level, performance-based requirements have been established for components that form the primary pressure boundary for the stored compressed hydrogen including the thermally-activated pressure relief devices (PRDs), the fuel shutoff, and the fill check valve in addition to the hydrogen container(s) themselves.
SAE J2579 passed the balloting and affirmation process as a Technical information Report (TIR) on January 3, 2008 and is expected to be published by mid-January.
The original version of SAE J2579 was published as a Technical Information Report (TIR) to provide opportunity for verification of test methodologies. The test methodologies are being evaluated globally by development partners such as the JARI, automobile and equipment manufacturers, and test laboratories using a combination of private and government funding. In North America, the US Department of Energy (DOE) is funding a test program to demonstrate the practicality and verify the appropriateness of the new systems-level, performance-based test methodologies. It is envisioned that SAE J2579 will be upgraded to reflect results of verification activities and expanded to address other types of hydrogen storage before being re-balloted and published in a couple years as a Recommended Practice.
UK Announces Launch of a Unique Hydrogen Testing Facility
Stuart Hawksworth, Head of Explosion Safety, Health and Safety Laboratory
On Tuesday October 9, 2007 the UK Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL) officially launched a unique hydrogen test facility on its 550 acre site in Buxton, Derbyshire. The day also included a tour of HSL facilities associated with hydrogen health and safety challenges.
The facility exceeds all current technologies with an unrivalled capability to test hydrogen systems up to pressures of 1000bar. It also provides flexibility to investigate all foreseeable high-pressure hydrogen applications ranging from refuelling and bulk storage to component and materials testing.
As part of European, and in some cases, World-wide effort, HSL are working at the forefront to ensure the safe introduction and commercialization of hydrogen as an energy carrier. Society’s expectations are obviously that Hydrogen technologies and applications should provide at least the same level of safety and reliability as today's fossil energy carriers. To help meet these challenges HSL has developed this unique hydrogen test facility.
The launch of the experimental hydrogen compression/release facility took place on Tuesday 9 October and was organized to coincide with a meeting being hosted at HSL of the HySafe European Network of Excellence (NoE). Over 50 representatives from more than 30 organizations with key roles in research and development of hydrogen technology were welcomed to the event by HSL’s Chief Executive, Eddie Morland.
After presentations from HySafe NoE Coordinator Thomas Jordan and HSL’s Head of Explosion Safety, Dr Stuart Hawksworth, the guests were shown specially filmed footage of preliminary high-pressure tests using the facility. The visitors were then escorted to the testing pad to see the system up close.
Hysafe NoE Coordinator, Thomas Jordan commended the new facility which he said, "would contribute enormously to achieving HySafe’s goal to promote public awareness and trust in hydrogen technology."
The unique testing facility is a major investment for the laboratory and recognizes the new safety challenges presented by using hydrogen as an alternative fuel. As a clean fuel with zero carbon emissions, hydrogen is widely seen as the future’s premier energy carrier and has been used safely for many years as an industrial gas by the aerospace and chemical industries.
For more information on the hydrogen facility please contact:
Paul Baker
Central Business Development
Tel +44 (0) 1298 218799
paul.baker@hsl.gov.uk
For more information on the HySafe project, visit www.hysafe.org.
About HSL
HSL has been leading the way in health and safety since 1911, and our expertise in the field is internationally recognized. Operating as an agency of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), we support their mission to protect people's health and safety by ensuring risks in the changing workplace are properly controlled.
Did You Know?
Michigan Hydrogen Rules Move Forward
Marcia Jo Poxson, Waste & Hazardous Material Division, DEQ
The Michigan Hydrogen Storage and Handling Rules package has been forwarded to The State Office of Administrative Hearings and Rules (SOAHR) for review and submission for Legislative Service Bureau (LSB) final approval. Once approved, the rules could be in effect by March, 2008.