New ASTM Activities Relating to Hydrogen and Fuel Cells
by Karen Hall
Vice President, Technical Operations of the
National Hydrogen Association

ASTM has a number of new subcommittees under ASTM Committee D03 on Gaseous Fuels that are applicable to analysis and measurement of contaminants, as well as testing and monitoring of hydrogen fuel.

ASTM Committee D03 on Gaseous Fuels was formed in 1935. The committee, with current membership of approximately 120, currently has jurisdiction over 31 standards, published in the Annual Book of ASTM Standards, Volume 05.05. These standards have and continue to play a preeminent role in the gaseous fuels industry and address issues relating to collection and measurement of gaseous fuel samples, determination of heating value and relative density of gaseous fuels, determination of special constituents of gaseous fuels, analysis of chemical composition of gaseous fuels, and thermophysical properties.

Standards under the jurisdiction of D03
Each main committee in ASTM International is composed of subcommittees that address specific segments within the general subject area covered by the technical committee. You can find these on ASTM’s D03 committee website. There you will be able to click on the subcommittee links below to see the title of existing standards for each subcommittee. Then, click on the resulting titles to see the standard's scope, referenced documents, and more.

D03.01 Collection and Measurement of Gaseous Samples
D03.03 Determination of Heating Value and Relative Density of Gaseous Fuels
D03.05 Determination of Special Constituents of Gaseous Fuels
D03.07 Analysis of Chemical Composition of Gaseous Fuels
D03.08 Thermophysical Properties
D03.12 On-Line/At-Line Analysis of Gaseous Fuels
D03.14 Hydrogen and Fuel Cells
D03.90 Executive
D03.92 Terminology Classification and Specifications
D03.93 Long Range Planning
D03.94 Awards

I was particularly interested in D03.12 and D03.14, as they may be useful for the efforts underway to develop a technical specification for hydrogen for use in PEM fuel cells for road transport applications, which may need to reference available analysis and testing methods. The following information was taken from the ASTM website:

WORK ITEMS under the jurisdiction of D03.12

WK4929 "Standard Practice for Total Sulfur Analyzer Based On-line/At-line Analysis for Sulfur Content of Gaseous Fuels"

WK4930 “Standard Practice for On-line/At-line Calorimetric Based Heating Value Determination of Gaseous Fuels”

WK5354 “Standard Practice for On-line/At-line BTU Determination of Gaseous Fuels”

WK5355 “Standard Practice for Gas Chromatograph Based On-line/At-line Analysis for Sulfur Content of Gaseous Fuels”

WORK ITEMS under the jurisdiction of D03.14

WK4548 “Standard Test Method for Determination of Trace Contaminants in Hydrogen and Related Fuel Cell Feed Gases”

WK5847 “Standard Practice for Sampling of High Pressure Hydrogen and Related Fuel Cell Feed Gases”

I encourage you to review the ASTM website. Interested parties may consider joining ASTM’s committees or subcommittees. It is also useful to become familiar with these work items if you are participating in hydrogen standards development in order to reference existing standards where applicable.