Industry Input Needed for NWIP: Hydrogen Quality for Fuel Cells
by Karen Hall
Vice President, Technical Operations of the National Hydrogen Association

As many of you know, ISO TC 197 WG 12 is developing a new Technical Specification for PEM fuel cells for road vehicles. The existing ISO 14687:1999 Hydrogen fuel - Product specification has been deemed inappropriate as it allows constituent concentrations that may harm the fuel cell. The working group had been considering removing all fuel cell applications from the standard, however it was decided that was outside the scope of WG12. This action is now being pursued seperately. The NHA has agreed to work with the US Fuel Cell Council to create a new work item proposal for consideration by the US TAG that seeks to ammend ISO 14687 so that it will not apply to fuel cell applications that are also deemed inappropriate for the grades of hydrogen contained in this standard. To do this, we are seeking industry feedback. We are asking you to review the specification in the table below, which is intended to be applied to hydrogen fuel as produced and delivered. In order to gather information to scope and justify a New Work Item Proposal, we are asking interested parties to answer the following questions:

1. What type of fuel cell are you considering?
2. What is the application (stationary, transportation mobility, auxillary power units, portable, etc.)?
3. Do you have any applications for fuel cells for transportation other than PEM fuel cells for road vehicles, such as auxillary power units? If so, please describe:
4. Do you currently use, or plan to use, ISO 14687 to specify the hydrogen fuel for your application?
5. What standard(s) or specification(s) are used currently for specifying the hydrogen for your fuel cell application(s)?
6. Do you have any concerns with the specifications as presented in Table I, below?
7. Is your concern with gaseous hydrogen, liquid hydrogen, or both?
8. Please describe what you feel should be changed in the existing standard to address your concerns.
9. If a New Work Item Proposal is approved, would you like to be considered as a technical expert for the resulting new ISO TC 197 Working Group?
10. Your name, job title, company, and contact information.

The NHA will collect the industry feedback to draft a New Work Item Proposal. Please email your feedback to hallk@hydrogenassociation.org.

For the following table, the types and grades of hydrogen fuel specified relate to the form of hydrogen and the limiting characteristics of constituents (maximum contamimant levels). Please note that this table is not to be used as a standard or specification. It represents a combination of requirements in the published ISO standard and proposed modifications being considered by WG12, but not yet approved by ISO TC 197. It also does not contain all the information contained in the published standard, such as specifications for slush hydrogen. The information contained is limited to the purpose of identifying concerns for gaseous or liquid hydrogen for fuel cell applications. It is provided only to seek industry feedback as to its suitability for various fuel cell applications. For complete specifications, please see the published standard, ISO 14687:1999 Hydrogen fuel - Product specification, which can be purchased from ISO, ANSI, and other national standards adoption organizations.

Type I, grade A gaseous hydrogen fuel for internal combustion engines for transportation; residential/commercial appliances (this could include fuel cells);
Type I, grade B gaseous hydrogen for industrial fuel, for use e.g. in power generation or as a heat energy source (this could include fuel cells);
Type I, grade C gaseous hydrogen fuel for aircraft and space-vehicle ground support systems (this could include fuel cells);
Type II, grade C liquid hydrogen fuel for aircraft and space-vehicle onboard propulsion and electrical energy requirements (this could include fuel cells); internal combustion engines for land vehicles.

Table 1 - Directory of limiting characteristics

Dimensions in micromoles per mole unless otherwise stated