New Working Group to Develop International Standard for PSA Systems
Karen Hall, Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association

Portable Power Activities
Karen Hall, Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association

ISO/TC 197 Announces Changes
Karen Hall, Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association

Hydrogen Fuel Quality Update
Karen Hall, Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association

IEC TC 105 Update
Karen Hall, Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association

National Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Codes & Standards Coordinating Committee Teleconference - July 2012 Minutes 
(PDF) Chad Blake, NREL

National Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Codes & Standards Coordinating Committee Teleconference - August 2012 Minutes 
(PDF) Chad Blake, NREL

New Working Group to Develop International Standard for PSA Systems
Karen Hall, Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association

A new work item proposal to develop a new International Standard (ISO 17971) on the general requirements on stationary and mobile hydrogen purification systems on pressure swing absorption in industrial or commercial use has been approved.

A new ISO/TC 197 working group, WG 17, Pressure swing absorption system for hydrogen separation and purification, has been established for this project. Individuals who wish to participate in this work contact their national mirror committee. In the U.S., interested parties are encouraged to contact Jill Thompson at CGA.

Portable Power Activities
Karen Hall, Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association

The Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association (FCHEA)'s Portable Power Working Group (PPWG) has been extremely active. The full working group meets monthly, and the Transportation Regulations Task Force meets 2-3 times each month.

The Working Group reviews and provides input into timely regulatory activities that impact transportation of portable and micro fuel cells and fuel cartridges.

A key area of focus has been to support activities that harmonize national regulations with approved international standards. The U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has an active Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to harmonize the Hazardous Materials Regulations with recent changes made to the International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code, the International Civil Aviation Organization's Technical Instructions for the Safe Transport of Dangerous Goods by Air, and the United Nations Recommendations on the Transport of Dangerous Goods-Model Regulations.

Docket Nos. PHMSA-2012-0027 (HM-215L), Hazardous Materials: Harmonization with International Standards (RRR) will be reviewed and discussed by the FCHEA PPWG Transportation Regulations Task Force at their next meeting on Wednesday, October 3. Comments must be received by October 15, 2012. All FCHEA members are welcome to participate. Past meeting minutes and webinar joining instructions are available on the Members Only area of the FCHEA website.

ISO/TC 197 Announces Changes
Karen Hall, Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association

Dr. Andrei Tchouvelev was unanimously approved as the Chair of ISO/TC 197 for a period of three years by the ISO Technical Management Board, with a vote that closed on September 14th. Dr. Tchouvelev fills the seat left vacant by Mr. Randy Dey.

Dr. Tchouvelev is well known in the hydrogen codes and standards arena, with 25 years of experience in hydrogen energy and technology. He has served as the Chair of the Canadian Advisory Committee on ISO/TC 197 "Hydrogen Technologies", Principal Investigator of Canadian Transportation Fuel Cell Alliance (CTFCA) / NRCan "Canadian Hydrogen Safety Program", Leader of Subtask "Risk Management" for International Energy Agency (IEA) Hydrogen Implementing Agreement (HIA) Task 19 "Hydrogen Safety", Chair of Advisory Council to the European Union (EU) Network of Excellence HySafe (Hydrogen Safety), and member of numerous codes and standards development committees.

The Technical Committee also has a new Secretary. Mr. J.P. (Jim) Ferrero, Eng., replaces Ms. Sylvie Gingras.

The next ISO/TC 197 meeting is expected to take place in Montreal early in 2013, with several dates in February currently under consideration. Working Group (WG) meetings may also take place on the Tuesday or Wednesday prior to the TC meeting. So far, both WG 16 and WG 17 have indicated that they wish to hold meetings in conjunction with the TC meeting.

P-18 Announcement

CGA announces the revision of P-18, Standard for Bulk Inert Gas Systems (an American National Standard). P-18 was approved as an American National Standard in 2006 and will be revised under the ANSI Essential Requirements. The P-18 ANSI Committee is currently seeking participants in the user, general interest, trade association, equipment supplier, and general retailer categories, defined on the attached committee member application form.

CGA's procedures for the development of American National Standards can be viewed online at http://www.cganet.com/ANS_site/ANS.htm.

P-18 is one of a series of publications compiled by the Compressed Gas Association, Inc. (CGA), to satisfy the demand for information relative to the production, transportation, handling, and storage of compressed gases, cryogenic liquids, and related products. This publication provides information on installation of industrial bulk inert gas systems for argon, nitrogen, and helium service.

Please submit completed committee member application forms to Kristy Morrison (kmorrison@cganet.com).

H-5 Announcement

CGA announces the revision of H-5, Installation Standards for Bulk Hydrogen Supply Systems. H-5 is proposed for development as an American National Standard and will be revised under the ANSI Essential Requirements. The H-5 ANSI Committee is currently seeking participants in the producer, user, general interest, and standards development organization categories, defined on the attached committee member application form.

CGA's procedures for the development of American National Standards can be viewed online at http://www.cganet.com/ANS_site/ANS.htm.

H-5 contains suggested minimum installation standards for bulk hydrogen supply systems. It is intended to provide recommendations for installing hydrogen supply systems. The standard covers the entire process: (1) site selection, (2) equipment selection, (3) regulatory compliance, (4) equipment transportation and setting, (5) equipment installation, (6) system start-up, (7) operation, and (8) system removal. The standard also provides safety and health considerations. Typical system flow diagrams are included.

Please submit completed committee member application forms to Kristy Morrison (kmorrison@cganet.com). 

Hydrogen Fuel Quality Update
Karen Hall, Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association

The performance and durability of Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cells is affected by the quality of the hydrogen fuel. The methods used to produce and purify hydrogen may result in different kind of impurities.

In order to ensure the appropriate standards and regulations are in place to facilitate wide-scale commercialization, there are a number of domestic and international efforts taking place to quantify the upper limits on potential impurities and define measurement techniques for verifying the quality specifications are met. This article highlights just a few of these key efforts.

Domestically, SAE J2719 is a published document that covers the hydrogen fuel quality requirements for PEM fuel cell vehicles. This means that there is now an ANSI-approved hydrogen fuel quality standard for fuel cell vehicles. The document is now available on the SAE website at http://www.sae.org.

There is also ongoing work on the development of commercial hydrogen measurement standards to meet the U.S. weights and measures requirements for commercial sale of hydrogen fuel. It is important to note that the hydrogen fuel quality specifications, as well as the test methods described in the developing standards, are expected to change as ongoing research and real-world demonstration projects help inform the process.

One European-led collaborative research project, "HyQ", is focused on pre-normative studies to provide a strong support to Regulation Codes and Standards organizations in order to normalize an acceptable fuel quality for PEM fuel cells. This project focuses mainly on transport applications but will also deal with stationary applications. Hydrogen fuel quality standards are essential for the mass commercialization of hydrogen based energy technologies.

There are three activities relating to hydrogen fuel quality withinISO/TC 197. The original document, ISO 14687, had a scope intended to cover all applications. However, experts recognized that the grades of fuel described in this document were not suitable for proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells and a new work item proposal was developed to create a grade suitable for PEM fuel cell vehicles. This resulted in a change in scope for ISO 14687 and a Corrigendum was published as follows: ISO 14687-1:1999/ Cor. 1:2001/Cor. 2:2008Hydrogen fuel - Product specification -Part 1: All applications except proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells for road vehicles.

A Technical Specification (ISO TC 14687-2) was then developed and published to cover hydrogen quality for PEM fuel cells for road vehicles. That activity progressed to develop an International Standard. ISO 14687-2 Hydrogen Fuel -Product Specification - Part 2: Proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell applications for road vehicles.

An effort to address a related issue for hydrogen quality for PEM fuel cells for stationary applications was also initiated. This will produce ISO 14687-3 Hydrogen Fuel - Product Specification - Part 3: Proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell applications for stationary appliances. This is being addressed by Working Group 14, which held their kick-off meeting in March 2010, and now has a Draft International Standard out for comment and vote. Publication of this document will require a further change in scope to ISO 14687-1.

There is a desire to avoid requiring the same fuel to undergo separate testing to verify it complies with more than one resulting hydrogen fuel grade. After all, if the fuel complies with the most stringent grade, why undergo additional testing to allow use in less stringent applications?

The hydrogen fuel must be suitable for the technology that will use the hydrogen. Should testing take into account the hydrogen production method when a single source for the hydrogen is used? Does it make sense to test for constituents that cannot be present? Can and should fuel quality be validated taking both the end use and the fuel production and delivery methods into account?

Both WG 12 and WG 14 attempted to address this issue by including language that allows the buyer and seller to agree provisions that might, for example, waive testing for constituents that could not be present based on production method and storage techniques. Unfortunately, this key language was removed during recent editing and may be a cause for concern for ultimate approval of the ISO documents.

There is a desire by the ISO/TC 197 experts to consider the merits of having all grades of hydrogen in a single document ultimately, once the various unique cases are well-defined. 

WG 14 agreed to harmonize ISO DIS 14687-3 with ISO 14687-2 as much as practical. It was noted that the hydrogen supply methods for stationary applications will be different than for hydrogen refueling stations. In addition, cycle times and anticipated system lifetimes will be different for the two applications. Therefore the constituent limits and method of testing fuel quality would need to be different between stationary applications and vehicle refueling.

The WG 14 recognizes that the hydrogen supply for stationary applications may include reformate, hydrogen produced following pressure swing absorption (PSA) of reformate, and hydrogen produced from electrolysis. Therefore ISO DIS 14687-3 takes the feedstock for the stationary fuel cell system into account.

An appropriate boundary point must be defined where the hydrogen quality sample will be taken. This will be between the final production and the fuel cell, and will relate to the stationary fuel cell system. 

The ISO DIS 14687-3 presently addresses pipeline hydrogen. Once this part is published, WG 14 may then consider hydrogen cylinder (remote power) applications.

IEC TC 105 Update
Karen Hall, Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association

IEC 62282-6-100 A1 Ed.1: Amendment 1 to IEC 62282-6-100 Ed.1: Fuel cell technologies - Part 6-100: Micro fuel cell power systems - Safety, has been unanimously approved and will be published as an International Standard.

IEC 62282-6-300 Ed 2: Fuel cell technologies - Part 6-300: Micro fuel cell power systems - Fuel cartridge interchangeability, has unanimously passed its Committee Draft vote and will be registered as an International Standard.

IEC 62282-4-101 Ed. 1: Fuel cell technologies - Part 4-101: Fuel cell power systems for propulsion other than road vehicles and auxiliary power units - Fuel cell power systems for industrial electrically driven forklift trucks - Safety, is currently out for review.

During its 2011 Plenary meeting in Cairo, Egypt, IEC TC 105 agreed to change the project number as follows:

• 62282-4-100 has become 62282-4-101 (dealing with safety)
• 62282-4-200 has become 62282-4-102 (dealing with performance)

In addition the title of the draft standard IEC 62282-4-101 has been slightly modified following the report from WG 6 to TC 105 at the Cairo meeting.

Members of the US Technical Advisory Group (TAG) are asked to send their comments to the TAG Secretary no later than November 16, 2012.