New Micro Fuel Cell Standards Efforts by the IEC
by Patrick Serfass
National Hydrogen Association

The three newest working groups created under the umbrella of the International Electrotechnical Commission’s Technical Committee on Fuel Cells (IEC TC 105) will focus on micro fuel cell applications and coordinate their efforts, according to the project leader of one of the working groups.

The three working groups (WGs):

* WG 8: Fuel cell technologies - Part 6-1: Micro fuel cell power systems – Safety

* WG 9: Fuel cell technologies - Part 6-2: Micro fuel cell power
systems – Performance

* WG 10: Interchangeability

have an important task in with much growth observed recently in the micro fuel cell and portable power market, and the commonly held perception that portable fuel cells may play a large role in the early adoption of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies.

Working Groups 8 and 9 will address Safety and Performance, respectively, while WG 10 will focus on standardizing the interconnection or “swapability” of fuel cartridges with the micro fuel cell power unit as well as the connection between the micro fuel cell and other electrical devices. Coordinating and standardizing these connections will help minimize leaks, match power loads and supplies and address other safety and performance issues that may arise from devices that are not compatible with each other.

To insure that the efforts of WG 10, which naturally overlap with the specific efforts of WGs 8 and 9, are coordinated, all three working groups currently plan to hold their meetings with the same location and date.

Their last meeting was September 20-24, 2004 in Northbrook, Ill. Currently, WG 10 plans to produce a Committee Draft (CD) of the standard by mid-2006 with a full international standard by 2007.

For an update on other IEC TC 105 working groups, read last month’s article in the Hydrogen Safety Report.

(Partially adapted an article in The Fuel Cell Review)