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NFPA Hydrogen Coordinating Group Forms
by Karen Hall
Vice President, Technical Operations of the
National Hydrogen Association
The National
Fire Protection Association (NFPA) recently formed a Hydrogen
Coordinating Group (74Kb PDF) to coordinate the development
of hydrogen requirements at NFPA. The group had a kick-off
conference call on January 7, 2003, and will have a meeting
at NFPA Headquarters in Quincy, MA at the end of January to
begin project work. The group will conduct as much business
as possible via phone and email.
The purpose of the January 7 conference call was to:
- Familiarize people with NFPA procedures for developing
hydrogen requirements.
- Discuss the objectives for the group.
- Discuss the agenda for the January 2003 meeting.
The objectives (99Kb PDF) of the NFPA
Hydrogen Coordinating Group are as follows:
- Review existing NFPA codes and standards to determine
existing hydrogen requirements.
- Determine what requirements are needed to address all
aspects of a hydrogen infrastructure.
- Compare the existing NFPA hydrogen safety requirements
to the needs of the hydrogen infrastructure and determine
where there are gaps.
- Identify appropriate NFPA codes or standards to include
in the needed hydrogen safety requirements.
- Form work groups to develop the needed requirements (if
they are not already being worked on by an NFPA technical
committee).
- Ensure that the material developed by the work groups
goes through the NFPA consensus process and is adopted in
the appropriate code or standard.
This activity is expected to lead to new and revised NFPA codes
and standards for hydrogen energy systems. The new NFPA Hydrogen
Coordinating Group includes members of NFPA as well as representatives
from the Department
of Energy, the National
Hydrogen Association, and hydrogen industry.
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