 |
 |
The Meeting of the U.S. TAG for ISO TC 197
by Robert L. Mauro, U.S. Technical Advisory Group
The meeting of the U.S. TAG for ISO TC 197 took place on May 21, 2002 at CGA’s offices. The prime purpose of the meeting was to prepare for the TC 197 plenary meeting in Montreal in June.
After Debbie Angerman, administrator for this TAG, welcomed the group on behalf of CGA; reviewed the anti-trust policy under which the meeting was conducted; and stated the open membership policy on the U.S. TAG; Bob Mauro began a review of ISO/TC 197 Plenary meeting agenda and work items in N221R1 and Secretariat Report, N227.
Mr. Mauro prefaced his remarks with a summary of the issues concerning European Integrated Hydrogen Project (EIHP), which affects many issues on the TC 197 agenda. This project was initiated with approximately ten companies and the European Union to address safety issues with hydrogen vehicles. In March 2001 draft regulations for on-board tanks were proposed by the German Ministry of Transportation to the ECE. Those proposals submitted by Germany were sent on to UN WP 29 for consideration as possible harmonized regulations reaching beyond Europe. The concern is that this process, once established, would bypass the international consensus organizations of IEC or ISO and also would not include North American countries or Japan, who are primary auto producers and markets. Bob reported that GRPE has set up an ad hoc committee (under the 1958 Agreement), to which Canada and the United States are not signatories, and this committee wants to work with ISO in some fashion. The United States through Steve Woods and Norm Newhouse has been commenting on the differences between the EIHP document and ISO standards ISO/CD 15869-1 to -5, and ISO/DIS 13985-1, -2. Steve Woods commented that the EIHP is broader in scope and the ISO documents are more specific to tanks, but that the basic design points are very similar even though the construction of the standards is very different.
Mario Sandoval offered an explanation of the hierarchy of European standards beginning with European regulations or directives, which give guidelines but do not call out standards, then harmonized standards, then a standard that gives specific guidelines, and then down to very specific requirements for a particular application. The question was raised as to where the EIHP draft regulations would fit in the hierarchy of European standards.
Work Item Status
Mr. Mauro asked for a brief overview of the work of each working group.
WG-2—Multimodal transport of hydrogen: Work largely subsumed by ISO/TC 220, Cryogenic vessels. Tom Joseph is the U.S. leader for ISO/TC 220, WG 1 and he reviewed the U.S. comments from this U.S. TAG to the ISO/TC 220 documents (ISO/TC 197 N226).
WG-4—Airport refueling of hydrogen: ISO/DPAS 15594 will soon be published.
WG5—Service stations and connectors: Convenor Livio Gambone will be proposing a new work item to continue work on this cancelled work item. SAE has been involved with the fuel connector document, 17268. WD 15866 has been delayed but the hope was that an NFPA document could be used as the basis for this work. The United States may want to be very involved in this work project. The Department of Energy is working with ICC and NFPA to coordinate work on this item.
WG 6—ISO/CD 15869, Gaseous hydrogen and hydrogen blends—Land vehicle fuel tanks
Tanks: Mr. Newhouse was asked specifically to make comments on this document. The U.S. concern is the possible exclusion of composite tanks for use because of this standard. There is also concern that the standard will exclude some proven tank designs from use.
WG 7—DTR 15916, Basic considerations for the safety of hydrogen systems: Steve Woods reported that in Paris the working group had an opportunity to recast this document as a technical report. This is currently out for committee vote. Steve Woods acknowledged Walter Stewart, NASA, for his assistance in writing this document.
WG 8—Hydrogen generators using water electrolysis process—A revised draft document was moved back to the working group. There will be another working group meeting in August. There should be agreement, and the possibility of a joint standard and joint technical committee.
Mr. Mauro stated that he believed the operating philosophy in TC 197 applies to the agreement with TC 22, IEC 105 and TC 58. The principle is that the work item should reside with the technical committee responsible for the product being produced. The prime concern is the safety of the end product. Safety considerations for hydrogen require consultation with individuals with other expertise. Steve Kazubski stated that Germany will be proposing a regenerative fuel cell system working group in IEC 105. It was suggested that this should be a joint working group activity between ISO/TC 197 and IEC TC 105. When the device is operating as a fuel cell, then IEC/TC 105 should have principle responsibility for the standard with ISO/TC 197 providing technical comments on safety. When the device is operating as an electrolyzer then ISO/TC 197 should have principle responsibility for the standard with IEC/TC 105 providing technical comments on safety. In the scheme of things the role of both committees are equally important, and therefore, their concerns should receive equal weight.
Proposed New Work Items
Mr. Kazubski made a presentation on the possibility of a New Work Item Proposal on Hydrogen generators using fuel processing technology, which would be circulated to the U.S. TAG for approval before being forwarded to ISO/TC 197. Mr. Sandoval, who also represents the Netherlands, will be proposed as the project leader with CSA America serving as Secretary. The intent is that this project will be jointly sponsored by the United States and the Netherlands. There was general consensus that the U.S. TAG would support this new work item proposal and that the group approved of alerting TC 197 that it will be forthcoming.
Ned Stetson gave a background presentation on metal hydrides. He circulated a draft new work item proposal to the group and stated that a revised new work item proposal would be forthcoming to the U.S. TAG for their approval. There was general consensus that the U.S. TAG would support this new work item, and the group approved alerting TC 197 at the plenary meeting in June of this new work item proposal. He stated that he envisions separate standards for different systems, but that the first standard would be for a portable tank. He emphasized the urgency to accelerate this work.
The U.S. TAG concluded that the current ISO/TC 197 liaisons are appropriate and recommended no changes.
EIHP
Mr. Mauro reviewed U.S. comments on EIHP draft regulations. After some discussion, the group agreed for the need to follow a consensus process for international standard and endorsed the ISO process.
Other business
Mr. Sandoval asked if there was a regulation on methane emissions. This could be important in the development of metal hydride technology. It was stated that there are no requirements on the table at this time. After those comments the meeting was adjourned.
|
