NFPA Update
by Carl Rivkin, National Fire Protection Association

Earlier this month the NFPA Technical Committee on Vehicular Alternative Fuel Systems (VAF) met in Detroit. This committee is responsible for NFPA 52, The CNG Vehicle Code and they are developing requirements for hydrogen refueling that will be a part of the 2005 edition of NFPA 52. The committee met at the SAE Headquarters and several members of the SAE Fuel Cell Committee attended to develop a better understanding of how NFPA and SAE documents can work together.

The committee also toured the Ford hydrogen refueling facility. The committee is committed to putting these hydrogen requirements into the 2005 edition, and this meeting reinforced the importance of hydrogen. The committee will have a draft chapter on hydrogen completed for their next meeting.

NFPA 50A and 50B, the codes for hydrogen storage, will be moved into NFPA 55, a document that will cover almost all gas storage other than propane. This work is being done by the Industrial and Medical Gases Technical Committee (IMG)

NFPA 853 Fuel Cell Standard is proceeding with their new document that will cover both large and small stationary fuel cells. They will complete their work in November. The current document covers only larger fuel cells. This document is the responsibility of the Electrical Generating Committee (ECG).