CGA Announces New Technical Advisory Group

By Jill Thompson, CGA

Since 1913, the Compressed Gas Association (CGA) has been dedicated to ever-improving safe, secure, and environmentally responsible manufacture, transportation, storage, transfilling, and disposal of industrial, medical, and food gases and their containers. CGA represents more than 130 member companies that provide engineering and scientific expertise necessary to develop consensus safety standards; provide safety information and warnings about the chemical or physical properties of gases and their containers; and provide technical training and education. CGA is an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) accredited Standards Developing Organization (SDO) and works directly with Federal, State, and Provincial agencies, and code officials to promote safe and responsible practices and regulations.

CGA is taking on the administration of a new U.S. Technical Advisory Group (TAG), for International Organization for Standardization (ISO)/Technical Committee (TC) 158, Analysis of gases. ISO/TC 158 operates under the following scope:

Standardization in the field of analysis of gases, including:

  • terminology;

  • preparation of gas mixtures;

  • sampling;

  • transfer lines;

  • analytical methods including evaluation of characteristics of the analysers.

Excluded:

  • subjects falling within the scope of any other ISO technical committee (e.g. ISO/TC 28, ISO/TC 146 and ISO/TC 193) unless specifically requested.

ISO/TC 158 is currently responsible for 24 published ISO standards and has 9 ISO standards under development/revision. Five working groups (WGs) and one joint working group (JWG) are responsible for the TC’s work program. Additional information about this TC is available on ISO’s website at the following link: https://www.iso.org/committee/53314.html

Membership on this new U.S. TAG is open to U.S. national interested parties who might reasonably be expected to be, or who indicate that they are, directly and materially affected by the TC’s work. Requests for membership on the U.S. TAG shall include a completed application (available at https://www.cganet.com/iso.php) and be addressed to Jill Thompson, CGA’s ISO Administrator, at jthompson@cganet.com. Nominations for the Chair for this U.S. TAG will also be accepted and the TAG membership will elect the Chair at its first meeting (date TBD).

Please feel free to forward this announcement to others who might be interested in this TC’s work.

CGA is also an ANSI-Accredited Administrator for the following six U.S. TAGs:

  • ISO/ TC 58, Gas cylinders;

  • ISO/TC 58/SC 2, Cylinder fittings;

  • ISO/TC 58/SC 3, Cylinder design;

  • ISO/TC 58/SC 4, Operational requirements for gas cylinders;

  • ISO/TC 197, Hydrogen technologies; and

  • ISO/TC 220, Cryogenic vessels.

Interview with the ISO/TC 197 Chairman

by Karen Quackenbush, FCHEA

In this tenth installment of FCHEA’s "Interview with the ISO/TC 197 Chairman" series of articles, Dr. Andrei V. Tchouvelev gives us a sneak preview of this year’s Strategic Planning Meeting.

“This year, the meeting will address “H2@Market: FCEV - H2 Station Interface: Interoperability, Regulations, and Certification, Dr. Tchouvelev announced”.

The ISO Technical Committee on Hydrogen Technologies, ISO/TC 197, and the Regulations, Codes & Standards and Safety Working Group (RCSS WG) of the International Partnership for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells in the Economy (IPHE) are organizing a one-day Strategic Planning Meeting on December 5, 2018 in the framework of strategic collaboration on international standardization. The Strategic Planning Meeting hosted by the CSA Group will benefit from the presence of a number of ISO/TC 197 experts who will be meeting at the same venue in the same week.

This Strategic Planning Meeting will focus on three key elements of hydrogen FCEVs and stations deployment in global markets specifically related to FCEV – H2 Station interface:

  • Interoperability of H2 station controls and dispensing protocol with an FCEV, including risk /safety aspects;

  • Regulations (global and local) related to such interface and interoperability; and

  • Certification, field evaluation, fuel quality, weight & measures of H2 station to meet regulatory and C&S requirements.

Dr. Tchouvelev cited the significant recent progress in the development of International Standards through ISO/TC 197, and suggested the time is ripe for stakeholders from the industry, research, standardization and policy communities to discuss the next steps. “For the interactive sessions, we asked each Panelist to answer four questions, which should help in the subsequent discussion to identify gaps and barriers as well as the need for and potential steps towards global standardization of requirements”, Dr. Tchouvelev explained.

The four questions are as follows:

  1. What has been achieved in the last three to four years?

  2. What is planned for near term (work-in-progress)?

  3. What are the gaps that need to be filled from standardization / regulatory stand points?

  4. Is a global standardization effort needed and if yes, who should lead it and how should it be implemented (mechanism / standardization framework)?

Dr. Tchouvelev noted that the discussion will touch on recent developments around the GTR13 Phase 2 activity, where we see inconsistencies related to vehicle-station interface. “Results from this Strategic Planning Meeting will help the harmonization between ISO standards requirements and the GTR13”, he suggested.

Timing is Everything

By Karen Quackenbush, FCHEA

When it comes to harmonizing requirements across national and international codes and standards, the old adage rings true. Timing is everything.

Industry is working with codes and standards development organizations to ensure harmonization of requirements for hydrogen energy systems and components relating to hydrogen vehicle refueling infrastructure. The goal is to ensure best practices are incorporated in relevant documents and to avoid conflicting requirements.

Model codes, such as NFPA 1, NFPA 2, NFPA 55, The International Fire Code, The International Fuel Gas Code, to name a few, cover the built environment (installation). National standards cover systems and component requirements when adopted or invoked by regulation or contract. Presently the CSA Group leads the effort to develop and maintain North American standards in the area of hydrogen components for fueling vehicles.

It is important to note that several of these documents have been provided to ISO/TC 197 as seed documents, which will, once developed as International Standards, be brought back to the appropriate CSA Technical Committees for harmonization with the North American counterparts.

In the meantime, the North American experts continue to advance and improve the CSA documents in some cases, or to reaffirm them as they are published until work to improve or harmonize them can begin.

At the present time, four reaffirmation ballots for current ANSI-accredited CSA Group standards are out for Technical Committee action in early December as follows:

  1. Approve the reaffirmation of ANSI HGV 2 -2014, Compressed hydrogen gas vehicle fuel containers. 

  2. Approve the reaffirmation of ANSI HGV 3.1 -2015, Fuel system components for compressed hydrogen gas powered vehicles. 

  3. HGV 4.2-2013, Hoses for compressed hydrogen fuel stations, dispensers and vehicle fuel systems.

  4. HGV 4.10, Fittings for compressed hydrogen gas and hydrogen rich gas mixtures. 

If you are interested in participating in CSA Group’s Standards Development Programs, please contact sara.marxen@csagroup.org for more information.

HyLAW Consortium Releases Report on Regulatory Barriers

(excerpted from www.hylaw.eu)

HyLaw is a European project which investigates Hydrogen Law and removal of legal barriers to the deployment of fuel cells and hydrogen applications. The project aims to boost the market uptake of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies providing market developers with a clear view of the applicable regulations whilst calling the attention of policy makers on legal barriers to be removed.

The project brings together 23 partners from Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Portugal, the Netherlands and United Kingdom and is coordinated by Hydrogen Europe.

The HyLaw consortium has analyzed the applicable legal and administrative processes in all the countries covered and has produced a set of analytical reports which seek to shed more light on the sources of regulatory barriers and the impact they have on the timely delivery of hydrogen technologies. They are now publicly available here:

 https://www.hylaw.eu/.

The following article was recently published by gasworld:

Italian government gives green light to hydrogen at 700 bar

By Jemima Owen-Jones, 7 November 2018, Published at www.gasworld.com

https://www.gasworld.com/italian-government-gives-green-light-to-hydrogen-at-700-bar/2015843.article

Italy will now be able to upgrade the capacity of its green hydrogen (H2) filling station pumps from 350 to 700 bar according to an official announcement made by La Gazzetta Ufficiale.

The upgrade was confirmed on Monday the 5th November 2018 under the signature of the Minister of Interior and the Minister of Infrastructures and Work. 

By conforming to the European Union’s standards, the H2 cars will now see their autonomy doubled and the filling process sped up to approximately three minutes.

The new policy does however state that the building of new H2 filling stations will be limited to areas with a low-density population. 

There is currently only one H2 filling station in the country located in the Bolzano region (South Tyrol/Alto Adige), it is hoped that the new decree will boost the development of H2 filling stations all over the country.

Increasing the Value Proposition: Hydrogen Safety [Webinar]

Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association / Connecticut Hydrogen-Fuel Cell Coalition

Thursday, December 13, 2018, 1:00 PM ET

Demonstrated safety in the production, distribution, dispensing, and use of hydrogen is critical to the widespread use of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies.

This webinar will provide an overview of design considerations that could be employed to ensure safety for a range of hydrogen applications; recent codes and standards changes for hydrogen and fuel cell technologies; and resources available through the Hydrogen Safety Panel. Stakeholders can learn about opportunities for safety reviews for free or at reduced cost.

Please join this webinar on Dec.13 from your computer, tablet or smartphone.

https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/183641189

United States: +1 (408) 650-3123, Access Code: 183-641-189

This webinar is a presentation of the Northeast Electrochemical Energy Storage Cluster and the Fuel Cell & Hydrogen Energy Association. For more information, please visit www.NEESC.org or www.FCHEA.org

Moderator: Karen Quackenbush, Senior Technical Specialist, FCHEA

Speaker: Nick Barilo, Hydrogen Safety Program Manager, Hydrogen Safety Panel/Center for Hydrogen Safety

The Fuel Cell & Hydrogen Energy Association publishes the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Safety Report, a bimonthly electronic publication which provides information about developing hydrogen and fuel cell codes and standards and related safety information.

This event is free to attend

For more information, contact info@chfcc.org or jgangi@fchea.org.