2017 FCS&EE Call for Abstracts

by Karen Quackenbush, FCHEA

On behalf of the 2017 Fuel Cell Seminar & Energy Exposition (FCS&EE) Technical Program Committee, I would like to invite you to submit an abstract describing your work.  The 2017 Seminar will be held November 7-9, 2017, in Long Beach, California.

With so much exciting research, progress, and growing commercial deployment and success, we have created a broad topic list for our Call for Abstracts, with some overlap, to encourage a range of submissions that will enable us to create a dynamic and “electrifying” conference that will be enticing to prospective attendees already involved in the industry or now looking to enter it.

Whether you have never submitted an abstract before or are a veteran, we encourage you to respond to the call!

See the Call for Abstracts topics here - www.fuelcellseminar.com/call-for-abstracts.

Submission guidelines for the Fuel Cell Seminar Abstracts is available here - www.fuelcellseminar.com/abstract-submission-guidelines.

Gas Cylinder Compatibility Amendment Published

by Karen Quackenbush, FCHEA

An Amendment to ISO 11114-1:2012, Gas cylinders — Compatibility of cylinder and valve materials with gas contents — Part 1: Metallic materials, has just been published.

ISO 11114-1:2012 provides requirements for the selection of safe combinations of metallic cylinder and valve materials and cylinder gas content. The compatibility data given is related to single gases and to gas mixtures.

Seamless metallic, welded metallic and composite gas cylinders and their valves, used to contain compressed, liquefied and dissolved gases, are considered.

Aspects such as the quality of delivered gas product are not considered.

This 2017 Amendment updates the notes on page 6 regarding the compatibility of gases and modifies Table 1 on page 7 to include specific filling requirements for mixtures with certain halogenated gases.

A link to purchase the amendment through CGA is included here:

https://www.cganet.com/customer/Publication_Detail.aspx?id=ISO-11114-1-AMD1

CGA P-18, Standard for Bulk Inert Gas Systems seeks Consensus Body Members

by Kristy Mastromichalis, Committee Project Manager, Compressed Gas Association, Inc.

The Compressed Gas Association (CGA) recently announced the formation of a consensus body for the proposed American National Standard (ANS) CGA P-18, Standard for Bulk Inert Gas Systems. This purpose of this standard is to provide information on the design, installation, start-up, maintenance, and removal of bulk inert gas systems for argon, nitrogen, and helium service.

Membership on this ANS consensus body is open to any directly and materially affected person in accordance with ANSI’s Essential Requirements (see attached). Currently, this ANS consensus body needs participants from the user, general interest, equipment supplier, distributor/retailer, and trade association membership categories. At the moment, we have sufficient representation from the producer interest category.  If you or someone you know is interested in participating on this ANS, please feel free to contact me by E-mail at kmastromichalis@cganet.com.
  
Please note that membership in CGA is not a requirement to join this ANS consensus body.  Currently, there is no fee to join this ANS consensus body. 

International Code Council Approves Hydrogen Vehicle Repair Booth Concept

By Robert Davidson, Davidson Code Concepts

The International Fire Code (IFC) recently finished its 2016 Group B review cycle. Based on expressed industry desire to address a need for repair booths or areas in the model codes, I worked with stakeholders to develop code language for the IFC which is consistent to similar language being developed in NFPA 2. The purpose of this proposal is to limit the impact of application of the enhanced requirements necessary for the repair of vehicles that use CNG, liquefied natural gas (LNG), hydrogen or other lighter-than-air motor fuels.

This technical language needs to be incorporated into the IFC in addition to NFPA 2 for two reasons. Firstly, based upon differing code change cycles between the IFC and NFPA 2, if the language is not added to the IFC for the 2018 edition, the soonest this beneficial method of protecting repair operations for hydrogen fueled vehicles could be referenced through NFPA 2 would be the 2021 edition of the IFC.

Secondly, these provisions do not only apply to hydrogen fueled vehicles, which are covered in NFPA 2. As proposed, the provisions apply to all lighter than air gaseous fueled vehicles since the hazard being addressed, escape of fuel gas from the fuel system, is the same.

As currently written an entire motor vehicle repair facility must be constructed or renovated to these increased requirements even if a single bay space out of many is all that is required to service such vehicles.

The new language provides that the requirements apply to the room, which could be the entire service bay area or a room separated by 1 hour construction methods, to a motor vehicle repair booth, or a defined motor vehicle repair area. The requirements for the motor vehicle repair room/booth/area options have been copied from relevant portions of existing language in the IFC for spray finishing and modified for this application. The concept is the same, limit any increased hazard to a specific space (room/booth/area) and protect that limited area. The hazard presented by servicing lighter-than-air motor fuel vehicles is much less than the hazard presented by flammable spray finishing. The motor vehicle repair booth could be prefabricated or field constructed as long as it meets the specified requirements.

This new option enhances the ease of acceptance of alternative motor fuels while properly addressing the additional hazards these vehicles may present with no reduction in the level of protection currently required to be met.

Based upon concerns with the definitions as proposed and the fact that this concept is just now being addressed within NFPA 2, F275-16 was not approved during the Committee Action phase.  However, it was clear from the feedback given that modifications to the proposal could be viewed favorably during the Public Comment phase in accordance with code development procedures. I worked with those who expressed concerns and garnered support from the International Code Council’s Fire Code Action Committee and presented a modification for the IFC Individual Consideration Agenda.  I also requested the ICC voting membership approve the proposal as modified by this public comment.

This resulted in the proposal being Approved as Modified by this comment. The final result is that the 2018 IFC, when published, will include definitions for Vehicle Repair Room, Motor Vehicle Repair Space, and Motor Vehicle Repair Booth, and provisions for repair rooms for vehicles fueled by lighter-than-air fuels. Until a jurisdiction adopts the 2018 edition of the IFC the new language can be utilized through an Alternative Methods permit application approach as outlined in Chapter 1 of the IFC.

Please see the following link for access to the IFC monograph and other committee reports:

http://www.iccsafe.org/codes-tech-support/codes/code-development/2015-2017-code-development-cycle/.

Progress Report on Development of International Standard for Hydrogen Fueling Hoses

by Karen Quackenbush, FCHEA

ISO/TC 197 WG 22, which is developing International Standard ISO 19880-5: Gaseous Hydrogen - Fueling Stations: Part 5 – Hose and Hose Assemblies, met February 22-24 in Tokyo, Japan. February 22 consisted of visits to two types of hydrogen stations in Japan.

Nimohyss Hydrogen Station KUDAN is a mobile type station founded by Taiyo Nippon Sanso, Iwatani, and Toyota TSUSHO and operated by Iwatani.

Hydrogen that is made by LNG reforming is shipped from Iwatani Chiba factory by a 19.6MPa curdle container. The system compressor, accumulator, dispenser, and cooling system are on a 25-ton truck and supply hydrogen at a maximum pressure of 82MPa. It can charge 5kg hydrogen to a FCV for 3 minutes and is capable of filling three FCVs back-to-back.

The group then visited Iwatani hydrogen station Shibakoen, which opened in April, 2015. This is a permanent fueling station, occupying 1097 m2, which relies on liquid hydrogen supplied from off-site. The site employs liquefied hydrogen tanks, a 5-stage hydrogen compressor system made by Linde AG of Germany, accumulators, dispensers, and other equipment. There are two TOKIKO Dispensers and they can fill a FCV in 3 minutes or a FC bus in 20 minutes. Five FCVs typically fill here daily.

The station includes a showroom (TOYOTA MIRAI Showroom), which showcases MIRAI, the fuel cell vehicle released in late 2014, along with videos and other displays that introduce the features of the vehicle and hydrogen. Located in the center of Tokyo, which is expected to evolve into a hydrogen society triggered by the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic games, the facility is designed to serve educational purposes for the promotion of the hydrogen society and to act as a hub for related information.

On February 23 and 24, the Working Group continued to address comments received during the circulation of a Committee Draft held in 2016. All comments received were reviewed and consensus was reached for addressing them.

One key issue which required further analysis after the meeting regarded the testing of electric conductivity of hoses. The result is that for the next Committee Draft (CD2) to be circulated soon, boundary conditions will be set to address the need to consider different designs and material combinations. In the case of the inner liner, when the materials have enough electric conductivity (volume resistivity is less than 1015 Wcm) and enough withstand voltage (dielectric breakdown voltage is more than 10 kV for liner thickness), the liner can be considered to have sufficient electric conductivity for dissipating static electricity in spite of its high electrical resistance of the inner layer.

With agreement on how to treat this final technical issue for circulation of CD2, the draft will be circulated to Working Group members one last time, and sent to the ISO/TC 197 Secretary for circulation as a Committee Draft 2.