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International Standard Working Group Meets in NHA UK
Office
by Karen Hall
Vice President, Technical Operations of the
National Hydrogen Association
The NHA hosted the second meeting of ISO TC 197 Working Group
12 in Gateshead, United Kingdom on September 20 & 21,
2004. There were eleven participants, including seven from
Japan, one from Germany, two from the U.S., and myself.
Members of WG12 agreed to a path forward to remove references
to fuel cells in ISO 14687 – Hydrogen Fuel - Product
Specification, and to create a Technical Specification (TS)
for a grade of hydrogen fuel for use in road vehicles using
PEM fuel cells. The grades of hydrogen currently described
in the standard have been deemed unsuitable for PEM fuel cells
for road vehicle applications, as they allow for much higher
levels of impurities than recent data has shown can be tolerated
by the fuel cells. There was also the concern that the grades
of hydrogen listed would not be suitable for other types of
fuel cells, including those used for stationary applications.
The Working Group prepared a draft Technical Corrigendum to
exclude fuel cells from the existing standard. The scope of
the standard would then read as follows:
This International Standard specifies the quality characteristics
of hydrogen fuel in order to assure uniformity of the hydrogen
product as produced and distributed for utilization in vehicular,
appliance or other fueling applications (ground, water, air
and space) except fuel cell applications.” The WG is
requesting the Corrigendum be circulated to all TC 197 country
members for review and comment, in order to ensure the removal
of all reference to fuel cells in ISO 14687 does not create
an inadvertent hardship. It is important to determine whether
anyone is using that standard for fuel cells in any application
currently.
The WG is in consultation with the ISO TC 197 Secretariat to
determine if this path is feasible. The other alternative is
to exclude PEM fuel cells for road transport applications only,
which would mean the existing standard would still be applicable
to PEM fuel cells for other applications, such as staionary,
as well as other fuel cell types for all applications currently
covered by the standard. If you have a view on which path is
most appropriate, please email me at HallK@HydrogenAssociation.org
so that your views can be included in the decision.
WG 12 will prepare Part 2, Technical Specification, Fuel Cell
Applications, to specify the quality characteristics of gaseous
and liquid hydrogen fuel in order to assure uniformity of
the hydrogen product as produced and distributed for utilization
in PEM fuel cells for road vehicles.
WG 12 endorses a long-term R&D effort to develop consensus
test protocols and procedures, testing, and data among the
EU, Japan, the U.S., and other interested parties. These data
are required to develop an international standard for hydrogen
fuel quality. The WG12 Secretary will ask all WG12 members
to help supply data and contribute to the long-term plan.
The TS will provide a mechanism to collect data from member
countries that wish to contribute, with a goal of having sufficient
confidence in developing the TS into an International Standard
in about six years.
It is envisaged that a future need for other fuel cell applications
(PEM for stationary, SOFC, Alkaline, etc.) may provide opportunities
to expand the scope of the TS or create a new TS, however
the current focus of the effort is on PEM fuel cells for road
vehicles, consistent with the scope of the New Work Item Proposal
which created this Working Group.
WG 12 will prepare a Working Draft by March 2005 and a Preliminary
Draft Technical Specification for review by ISO TC 197 by
July 2005. WG 12 hopes to receive approval of the Draft Technical
Specification as a Technical Specification by ISO TC 197 at
its plenary meeting in November 2005.
In order to meet this timeline, WG 12 plans to hold its 3rd
meeting in January 2005 in California to discuss and achieve
consensus on fuel quality data obtained to date and on the Working
Draft.
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