NGV2 Standard Reaffirmed
Julie Cairns, CSA America, Inc.

The present Standard for Compressed Natural Gas Vehicle (NGV) Fuel Containers was approved by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in 2000. The present standard comprises the base text NGV2-2000 and Addenda NGV2a-2001.

In accordance with American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Essential Requirements, Section 4.7, American National Standards shall be reaffirmed on a schedule not to exceed five years from the date of its approval as an American National Standard.

The NGV2 standard has not been printed as a new edition in five years and therefore reaffirmation of the published NGV2-2000 and NGV2a-2001 has been sent to the CSA Automotive Technical Committee for approval.

First Responders Get Hydrogen Car Safety Facts in Torrance
Muhammed El-Hasan
Reprinted from Daily Breeze.com

As the auto industry races ahead with technology to run vehicles on hydrogen gas, what happens when one of these cars rolls on the road?

Will the vehicle explode like the hydrogen-filled Hindenburg in 1937?
What will emergency responders such as firefighters do at the scene?
A conference Wednesday in Torrance brought about 200 emergency responders, building safety personnel, public officials and others from across the state to discuss hydrogen car safety.

"Hydrogen is not the threat or terror people associate with it when they think of the Hindenburg," said Ruben Grijalva, California state fire marshal, who delivered the keynote speech. "A key thing here is identifying what are the public safety issues, and that includes getting rid of the myths."

For example, if hydrogen escapes from a vehicle tank, the gas usually disappears into the atmosphere in a harmless manner. However, gasoline tends to pool on the ground, posing a fire risk, Grijalva said.

The Los Angeles Area Fire Marshals Association and the California Fuel Cell Partnership organized the event to help acquaint fire departments and other safety organizations with risks and challenges of hydrogen-powered vehicles.

Automakers including Toyota, Honda and Nissan -- which have U.S. or North American headquarters in the South Bay -- are years, if not decades, from selling hydrogen-powered vehicles to the public.

Prototypes already are running on American roads, mostly in California. The vehicles use a fuel cell to combine hydrogen gas from a tank with oxygen from the air to produce electricity to run a vehicle motor. The byproducts are water and heat.

New state fire and building codes are adopted every three years, while the technology behind hydrogen-run vehicles and refueling stations advances much quicker. As a result, the codes lag the technology, Grijalva said.

So emergency responders must be "flexible" as they deal with an incident such as a vehicle rollover involving hydrogen, he said.
For example, there's no industry standard for the location of hydrogen tanks or high-voltage wire in a fuel cell vehicle. He stressed greater communication between automakers, local agencies, developers of safety codes and emergency responders to help deal with ambiguities in the code.

That means local agencies must report any incidents involving hydrogen to emergency responders, he said.

"We don't want our codes to be based on what-ifs," Grijalva said. "We want to have real-world examples."

During a panel discussion, a Toyota official said that his company's hydrogen-powered prototype has adequate safety precautions.
For example, if "anything goes wrong," the car's high voltage is isolated inside the two metal cases, said Gary Smith, Toyota's national service technology manager.

"I can assure you these vehicles are safe," said Smith.
In Honda's hydrogen-powered vehicle prototype, the high-voltage system is "completely isolated" from the car's frame to prevent the chance of an electric shock from just touching, say, the hood, said Ryan Harty, a Honda vehicle test engineer.

Steve Hoffman, an official at Air Products and Chemicals Inc., which is working with Shell Hydrogen to open hydrogen refueling stations, summed up the sentiment of the speakers.

"Hydrogen is not more or less safe than other fuels," Hoffman said. "It's just different."

The 2005 Plenary for IEC TC 105: Fuel Cell Technologies
Steve Kazubski, IEC TC-105 U.S. TAG Administrator

On December 6-7, 2005, the IEC TC-105 Plenary returned to Frankfurt where TC-105's first meeting on fuel cell technologies was held in 2000 at the offices of VDE (Association for Electrical, Electronic and Information Technologies - Germany). This year's meeting was run by the newly appointed TC-105 chairman and secretary, Dr. Hiromichi Fujisawa from Hitachi Ltd., and Mr. Wolfgang Winkler from Hamburg University of Applied Sciences. Forty-four delegates from 10 countries were in attendance. The Head of Delegation for the United States was Mr. Kelvin Hecht from UTC Fuel Cells.

Reports on current activities were given by the following TC-105 working groups:

WG 1 - Terminology
WG 2 - Fuel cell modules
WG 3 - Stationary fuel cell power systems - Safety
WG 4 - Stationary fuel cell power systems - Performance
WG 5 - Stationary fuel cell power systems - Installation
WG 6 - Fuel cell systems for propulsion
WG 7 - Portable fuel cell power systems - Safety
WG 8 - Micro fuel cell power systems - Safety
WG 9 - Micro fuel cell power systems - Performance
WG 10 - Micro fuel cell power systems - Interchangeability

Currently, the first edition of IEC/TS 62282-1, Fuel cell terminology, contains common fuel cell definitions contained in TC-105 publications. The technical committee has now decided that WG-1: Terminology will work to expand 62282-1 to cover a larger scope as a general fuel cell glossary for its second publication slated for 2008. Mr. Hecht will continue to lead this effort.

Mr. Gerhard Filip stepped down as Convener for WG-2: Fuel cell modules after successfully overseeing the completion of the first edition of IEC 62282-2, Fuel cell modules. The technical committee appointed Mr. Gerhard Huppmann to replace Mr. Filip. There will be a call for new members to join WG-2.

The current document, Committee Draft for Vote (CDV), was approved for WG-3: Stationary fuel cell power systems - Safety. Mr. Hecht, WG-3 Convener, has scheduled a meeting for March 6-7, 2006, in San Francisco to be hosted by CSA America for the purpose of resolving all outstanding comments on the draft. WG-3 is targeting May - 2006 for submitting their final draft to TC-105. Note that IEC's formal request to CEN/CENELEC to terminate their creation of a fuel cell gas heating appliance standard that overlaps the scope of WG-3 has fallen on deaf ears. TC-105 has now asked WG-3 to strive towards future harmonization with CEN/CENELEC document.

TC-105 issued a ballot (105/103/FDIS) for a Final International Draft Standard prepared by WG-4 to be published as IEC 62282-3-2 Ed.1,Stationary fuel cell power systems - Performance test methods. National committees have until February 10, 2006 to vote on the document. Mr. Osamu Yamamoto continues to lead WG-4 activities.

The document for WG-5: Stationary fuel cell power systems - Installation has been circulated as a Committee Draft (105/101/CD). National committees have until February 24, 2006 to submit comments. Mr. Huppmann, WG-5 Convener, has scheduled a meeting for March 8-9, 2006, in San Francisco to be hosted by CSA America for the purpose of resolving comments that will be received on the CD and to prepare a Committee Draft for Vote (CDV).

There has been no activity this past year in WG-6: Fuel cell systems for propulsion. However, Japan will be proposing a New Work Item Proposal (NWIP) in the near future for starting a TC-105 standards activity for fuel cell specialty vehicles.

A final draft international standard for distribution to the National Committees is expected to be submitted by May - 2006 by WG-7: Portable fuel cell power systems - Safety. To complete the current task of resolving outstanding comments from the successfully closed CDV ballot, CSA (Canada) has scheduled a meeting for March 9-10, 2006, in San Francisco. Messrs. Jeff Grant and Robert Wichert were thanked for their tenures leading WG-7. The technical committee appointed Mr. Gerard Boudiere to become the next WG-7 Convener.

WG-8: Micro fuel cell power systems - Safety led by Mr. Harry Jones is on track to submit a CDV on Micro fuel cell power systems - Safety to the TC for distribution National Committees by March - 2006. The next tentative meeting has been scheduled for January 30, 2006, in Milford Connecticut to be hosted by the BIC Corporation.

WG-9: Micro fuel cell power systems - Performance will submit their first Committee Draft (CD) to TC-105 by mid-January, 2006. Mr. Harvey Yokoyama, WG-9 Convener, has announced that Tokyo will host the next WG-9 meeting to be scheduled for July - 2006.

WG-10: Micro fuel cell power systems - Interchangeability, is aiming to advance standardization concerning the interchangeability of the micro fuel cell system for portable electronics. WG-10's targeted schedule calls for issuing a CD by August - 2006, a CDV by February - 2007, and a published International Standard by December - 2007. Mr. Fumio Ueno, WG-10 Convener, is planning a meeting to be held in Jan/Feb - 2006.

In conjunction with the TC meeting in Frankfurt, scheduled meetings for TC-105 working groups 7 (Portable fuel cell power systems - Safety), 8 (Micro fuel cell power systems - Safety), 9 (Micro fuel cell power systems - Performance) and an impromptu meeting of TC-105 WG-3 (Stationary fuel cell power systems - Safety) were held.

Draft CA Station Location and Siting Criteria Available, Comments Needed
Patrick Serfass, National Hydrogen Association

On December 2, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) distributed "Draft siting and location criteria" for the three hydrogen demonstration fueling stations that will be co-funded by Senate Bill (SB) 76 (143Kb PDF). For these stations, criteria have been developed in the following areas:

  • environmental impact;
  • geographic location;
  • siting and operation;
  • fuel specification; and
  • information reporting.

DRAFT Location and Siting Criteria for Hydrogen Fueling Stations(18Kb PDF)

These criteria are available for review and comment until January 5, 2006. Comments received will be taken into consideration to create requests for proposals (RFP) for the construction of the stations and purchasing hydrogen vehicles. Comments can be submitted to Mr. Michael Kashuba, Staff Air Pollution Specialist, at 800-242-4450 or via email at helpline@arb.ca.gov by January 5, 2006.

Other resources:

Website:

Update on ISO TC 197 Hydrogen Technologies

The ISO TC 197 Plenary and working group meetings were held in November in Palm Springs, California. A special thanks to the U.S. Fuel Cell Council for hosting the ISO/TC 197 Plenary meeting in Palm Springs November 10, and the organizations whose sponsorship made it possible. 15 U.S. delegates attended and 8 countries were represented at the Plenary meeting: Canada, France, Italy, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Norway and the United States.

The Chairman reported on his activities to promote TC 197 by means of a round table in early 2007 for facilitating global harmonization of regulations, codes and standards on hydrogen and other gaseous fuels, infrastructure as well as road and off-road vehicles that use these fuels. He has been named to manage the development of the roundtable. The NHA will publish additional information in the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Safety Report as it becomes available.

Working Group Reports
WG 8 Hydrogen generators using water electrolysis process-Part 1: Industrial and commercial (Work Item (WI) 22734 -1) is out for comment and vote, which ends December 29, 2005.
Part 2 of the standard on residential electrolyzers was being written and is scheduled to be issued for committee draft (CD) comment and vote in early 2006.

The report on WG 9, Hydrogen generators using fuel processing technologies (WI 16110 -1 & -2) is presented in a separate article in this issue by the convener, Falco Thuis of the Netherlands.

The report on WG 10, Transportable gas storage devices-Hydrogen absorbed in reversible metal hydrides (WI 16111) was given by Ned Stetson. Dr. Stetson indicated that the WG 10 meeting produced a draft that addressed all the comments raised by the previous draft CD. He hopes the CD can be issued for vote and comment as soon as possible. He also indicated that the great interest in this work by the UN and DOT causes him to request that this material be made available as a technical specification (TS). This would allow for earlier issuance of a document that could be referenced. The technical committee considered his request and approved parallel tracks for the document as a Draft Technical Specification in parallel with the second CD for an International Standard.

The report on WG 11, Gaseous hydrogen and hydrogen blends-Fuelling stations (WI 20012) was given by Chairman, Randy Dey, who is also the convener. He indicated that the draft technical specification (TS) was being written and should be issued for review and vote in late summer 2006.

The report on WG 12, Hydrogen fuel-Product specification(14687-2) was presented by Professor Takagi, convener from Japan. He indicated that WG 12 had reached agreement on the draft TS and were ready to issue it for comment and committee vote along with the corrigendum to Part 1 in December. During the discussion there was much confusion on the scope of this effort. The chairman requested a presentation on the scope of the effort later in the meeting.

The report for WG 13, Hydrogen detectors (WI 26142) was given by Ichiro Matsubara of Japan. He presented the scope of the effort and indicated that he hoped to have a CD for vote and review by September 2006. The first meeting of WG 13 will be the end of January 2006 in Japan. The convener indicated that he would expand the scope to include all structures. He also stated that voltages and currents of detectors would not be specified. TC 197 will develop a formal liaison with IEC TC 31 to have its members serve on ISO TC 197 WG 13.

ISO/TC 197 confirmed the need for all the work items currently registered in its program of work and, considering the report of the working group conveners, agreed to the following target dates:

 

Target Dates for ISO TC 197 Work Items

Key: (CD - Committee draft, DIS - Draft International Standard, DTR - Draft technical report, DTS - Draft Technical Specification, FDIS - Final draft International Standard, IS - International Standard, TS - Technical Specification

WG

Work Item

Title

Target dates

1

13985

Liquid hydrogen - Land vehicle fuel tanks

FDIS: 2006-01
IS: 2006-07

5

17268

Compressed hydrogen surface vehicle
refueling connection devices

First publication
FDIS: 2005-12
IS: 2006-06
Revision
CD: 2006-12
DIS: 2007-06
FDIS: 2008-06
IS: 2008-12

6

15869

Gaseous hydrogen and hydrogen blends
- Land vehicle fuel tanks

DIS2: 2006-02-28
FDIS: 2006-10-28
IS: 2007-04-28

8

22734-1

Hydrogen generators using water
electrolysis process - Part 1: Industrial
and commercial applications

FDIS: 2006-07
IS: 2007-01

8

22734-2

Hydrogen generators using water
electrolysis process - Part 2: Residential
applications

CD: 2006-01
DIS: 2006-07
FDIS: 2007-07
IS: 2008-01

9

16110-1

Hydrogen generators using fuel processing
technologies - Part 1: Safety 

FDIS: 2006-09
IS: 2007-03

9

16110-2

Hydrogen generators using fuel processing
technologies - Part 2: Test methods for
performance

CD: 2006-03
DIS: 2006-09
FDIS: 2007-09
IS: 2008-03

10

16111

Transportable gas storage devices - 
Hydrogen absorbed in reversible metal
Hydrides 

DTS: 2005-12
TS: 2006-06
CD2: 2005-12
DIS: 2006-06
FDIS: 2007-06
IS: 2007-12

11

20012

Gaseous hydrogen - Fuelling stations

DTS: 2006-08
TS: 2007-02

12

14687-2

Hydrogen Fuel - Product Specification
- Part 2: PEM fuel cell applications for
road vehicles

DTC: 2005-12
DTS: 2005-12
TS: 2006-06
International Standard
CD: 2007-06
DIS: 2008-06
FDIS: 2009-06
IS: 2010-01

13

26142

Hydrogen detectors

CD: 2006-09
DIS: 2007-03
FDIS: 2008-03
IS: 2008-09

The Chairman discussed the progress that was made on the ISO TC 197 business plan and the need to provide updated hydrogen information for the plan.

Mr. Dey discussed the ad hoc group on hydrogen components. He proposed that a list of international standards be developed for hydrogen components, which identified the standards that could be used as is, with minor modification, or required new work item proposals. The chair also requested additional members of the committee.

There was agreement that the next meeting would be held in Lyon, France in conjunction with the WHEC meeting in June 2006.

Other Working Group News
ISO/DIS 22734-1, Hydrogen generators using water electrolysis process-Part 1: Industrial and commercial applications is out for vote. US TAG members are reminded to get your vote to CGA no later than December 19. (Contact Debbie Angerman, 703-788-2700 orcga@cganet.com.)

WG-11, Gaseous hydrogen and hydrogen blends--Filling stations is looking for additional experts. Randy Dey is the convener. Please contact your TAG Administrator (Debbie Angerman for the U.S.) if you are interested in serving on this working group to formulate the draft of ISO 20012.

Hydrogen Generators Using Fuel Processing Technologies
Falco Thuis, Convernor of ISO TC 197 WG 9

It is my pleasure to report, after some delaying issues, the work within ISO TC 197 Working Group 9 is back on track and much progress is expected in 2006. 

As announced by Mario Sandoval in his last article, he had to withdraw as convener because he left Shell Hydrogen. As Mario's successor, it is my pleasure to lead our working group to take both the hydrogen generator safety standard and the performance standard to the next levels. Through this article, I once again would like to thank Mario very much for his significant efforts and his enthusiastic and motivating spirit as convener. I am glad to report Mario is still active in the working group as a member. 

The ISO 16110-1 DIS (Draft International Standard), "Hydrogen Generators Using Fuel Processing Technologies - Part 1: Safety," has been circulated for balloting by ISO Central half October 2005. Although a draft DIS was already send to the ISO TC 197 secretary early this year, it appeared a lot of editing work was needed. The complexity of the standard and the fact that this was the first time burner technology and sophisticated hydrogen technologies have been integrated in an international standard delayed the process seriously. In addition, some copyright issues needed resolution. Many thanks for the editing committee who did a very good job. Based on the balloting result and comments period that follows, the working group will decide how to continue and whether a meeting is required. It is our intension and commitment to the ISO TC 197 plenary meeting to issue a FDIS in 2006. 

In Palm Springs, USA, November 9, in advance of the ISO TC 197 Plenary meeting, Working Group 9 had their last and only meeting in 2005. The main objective was to discuss the draft ISO 16110-2 standard "Hydrogen Generators Using Fuel Processing Technologies - Part 2: Test Methods for the Performance." As a starting point we used the CDV on fuel cell system performance as produced by Working Group 4 of IEC TC 105 on fuel cell systems. The IEC's permission to use this document is very much appreciated. 

During the meeting we had a very fruitful discussion and decided to re-structure the document to find a better fit for hydrogen generators. We also came to the conclusion that the former title, which only addressed efficiency testing, did not fully reflect the scope and content of this standard. Efficiency is only one part when comparing hydrogen generator performance. Customers purchasing hydrogen generators will want to know other information such as: power rating, fuel gas input, air flow, etc. To adequately reflect this practice in the hydrogen generator industry, we sought to de-emphasize efficiency and instead promote the word 'performance' in the title since it represents the idea of many parameters being measured. 

It is the working group objective to further improve the document and issue a committee draft by Spring 2006. 

I would like to thank the all WG9 members (and their organizations) who for almost three years have reviewed in detail and discussed both documents passionately and at length. Special thanks for those who contributed in person and attended one of our working group meetings. 

Further details about ÏSO TC 197 WG9 (deadlines, etc) can be found in: http://www.hydrogensafety.info/archives/2004/jul/5.html.

New SAE Committee Leadership
Karen Hall, National Hydrogen Association

The SAE Fuel Cell Standards Committee has elected new officers, as follows: 

Chairman: Mike Steele
Vice Chair: Glenn Scheffler
Secretary: Mark Richards

Ron Sims, who had been the Chairman of this Committee, has retired. The NHA will contact the new officers for future SAE updates.

For those of you unfamiliar with the SAE Fuel Cell Standards Committee, this is a full committee within the Society of Automotive Engineers with a mission to "Establish standards for vehicle fuel cell systems and its interfaces to the vehicle." The scope of the activity is as follows: 

The standards will cover the safety aspects of fuel cell systems in vehicle, test procedures to establish the performance of the system/components, and interface requirements.

SAE members can access private Forum pages to access working documents. There is also a public forum with a wealth of information about the activities of the committee, including the meeting calendar, status of the working group activities, and other useful information. Use the link below to access the public Forum page.

http://forums.sae.org/access/dispatch.cgi/TEVFC_pf/