Minutes of the Joint Teleconference Meeting of the DoE Hydrogen Codes & Standards Coordinatring Committee (HC&SCC) and the USFCC Codes & Standards Working Group

MEETING DATE: February 2, 2005
TIME: 3:00 - 4:30 PM (EST)

AGENDA AND SUMMARY OF DISCUSSIONS

1.0 PARTICIPANTS
The listing of the teleconference participants is Attachment A to the Minutes

2.0 REVIEW OF ANTI-TRUST POLICY
USFCC Codes and Standards Working Group meetings begin with the reminder to review and follow the anti-trust guidelines at the following web sites:

http://www.usfcc.com/members/ANTITRUST_GUIDELINES_REV.pdf

and

http://www.usfcc.com/members/Memo_on_Antitrust_Guidelines.pdf

3.0 OPPORTUNITY FOR DOE/HQ TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT MANAGER TO REPORT ON WHAT'S GOING ON AT DOE/HQ
Since he was involved in another meeting during the teleconference meeting, Pat Davis (DOE/HQ Technology Development Manager for Safety, Codes and Standards) was unavailable to make a report. In his absence, Antonio Ruiz (Safety Engineer, DOE Office of Hydrogen, Fuel Cell and Infrastructure Technologies) gave a report. He reported, basically, that nothing has changed at DOE/HQ since Pat's report given at January's meeting.

The budget for FY05 is essentially level with FY04's, but includes several new funding obligations, effectively reducing the funding available to continue prior year projects. The major new funding obligation for the activity in FY05 is providing support to the Department of Transportation to support R&D for vehicles standard development.

Because of the shortfall, hydrogen sensor R&D work will not be conducted in FY05. In addition, NREL has to deal with the issue of down-scoping some of the draft codes and standards development activities with CDOs and SDOs because of the shortfalls.

Robert Wichert inquired about the nature of NREL's problem of having to down-scope some of the draft codes and standards development activities with CDOs and SDOs -- which organizations are being impacted, the nature of the work that will not be done etc. His objective was to get a handle on what will not be done, priorities and funding requirements - to determine the possibility of USFCC's (through its membership) providing financial support to make sure that at least all of the high-priority work is accomplished in a timely manner.

The action items were: (1) NREL's documenting (using the appropriate proprietary considerations) the planned efforts that will not be conducted because of the budget shortfalls, the funding requirements and NREL's thoughts regarding priorities; and (2) NREL conducting a teleconference meeting with Mr. Wichert and other USFCC memebers to discuss the situation and assess possibilities for USFCC's bringing funding support to the table for high priority items - from USFCC's perspective.

The proposed budget for the Program for FY06 has been prepared and approved by DOE/HQ, but cannot be revealed until the Federal Budget for FY06 is released by the President in February.

4.0 OPPORTUNITY FOR NHA TO DISCUSS THE UPCOMING 16TH
ANNUAL US HYDROGEN CONFERENCE AND HYDROGEN EXPO AND MEETINGS DURING THE WEEK OF THE CONFERENCE

NHA, in conjunction with its co-sponsors, will be conducting the 16th Annual US Hydrogen Conference and Hydrogen Expo in Washington, DC during the period March 29 - April 1, 2005. Karen Miller Hall and Patrick Serfass reported on the National Codes and Standards Workshop for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells to be conducted on March 29th and the planning for "side meetings" to be conducted during the time of the Conference.

The Workshop will be a joint DOE/NHA/NREL/USFCC activity. The agenda is available here. (200Kb PDF)

In addition, the Workshop will serve as the In-Person March/April joint meeting of the USFCC Codes & Standards Working Group and the DOE Hydrogen Codes and Standards Coordinating Committee.

Plans are being made for the following meetings/events:

• Forum on Global Technical Regulations
• Meeting of the US Technical Advisory Group (TAG) for ISO TC197
• Meeting to address hydrogen fuel quality issues

Sandia and NREL will report on the DOE Risk Assessment Workshop (to be held on March 10th at NREL) as an agenda item in the Workshop.

Jesse Schneider (DaimlerChrysler) asked that NHA schedule a meeting (or session) during the Annual Conference to address the issue of how to develop an open (i.e., non-proprietary) protocol for hydrogen vehicle refueling. The Interface Working Group of the SAE Fuel Cell Standards Committee had been developing a document J2601 (Refueling Communications Protocol) that addressed the issue, but suspended work when they learned that Air Products had a patent for a protocol similar to the one they were developing.

The action item was for NHA to schedule a meeting near the end of the Annual Conference to address the issue.

In addition, while at the Conference, it is expected that representatives from DOE, NREL, USFCC and NHA will explore the possibility of transforming the very successful joint meetings of the HC&FCC and the USFCC C&S Working Group into a DOE/NREL/NHA/USFCC National Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Codes and Standards Coordinating Committee.

5.0 AGENDA FOR JOINT IN-PERSON MEETING OF HC&SCC
AND USFCC C & S WORKING GROUP AT THE NHA ANNUAL
CONFERENCE
The agenda for the March 29th meeting is discussed in 4.0 above.

6.0 SEPARATION DISTANCES R & D ACTIVITIES

6.1 Report on Planned Risk Assessment Workshop
Chris Moen and Jim Ohi reported on Sandia's and NREL's plan to conduct a follow-on DOE workshop to specifically address risk assessment activities, methodologies and data requirements. The workshop will be held on March 10th (Thursday) at NREL. It will be a "by invitation" event. In addition to researchers, it will include representatives from the hydrogen industry, the fuel cell industry and insurers. When Jim and Chris reported on the planning of the workshop at the January 2005 teleconference meeting, the workshop was planned for February. However, several USFCC members and other persons participating in the meeting requested that the workshop be postponed until after the ICC 2005 Code Development Hearings - which are scheduled for February 21 - March 2 in Cincinnati, OH. The rationale for requesting postponement, until after the ICC Hearings, was that information might come out of the Hearings from the building code and fire safety communities that should be addressed in the workshop. The date that NREL and Sandia have established for the workshop is responsive to the request to conduct it after the ICC Hearings.

6.2 Report on Planned Meeting of Representatives from the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Industries with Sandia
One of the action items from previous meetings was for Robert Wichert to work to: (i) recruit representatives from the fuel cell and hydrogen industries to participate in a meeting with Sandia to provide input into the R&D; and (ii) arrange a site visit and interactive working meeting of the representatives (involving two-way communications) with Sandia. Robert reported that, after polling representatives from both industries and discussions with Sandia, a meeting has been set for February 24th (Thursday) at Sandia/Livermore. So far, Robert has six representatives "signed up" to participate and expects to recruit several others. Chris reported that, while the ideal number of participants would be 10-12, Sandia is prepared to accommodate up to 20.

7.0 REPORT ON NFPA ACTIVITIES
Carl Rivkin gave reports on: (i) what is going on with NFPA 52 (Vehicle Fuel Systems); and (ii) the results from the meeting of the NFPA Hydrogen Coordinating Group with the new director of the NFPA Fire Protection Research Foundation (Kathleen Almand).

The Technical Committee on Vehicular Alternative Fuel Systems established committee consensus positions for each of the 830 comments received regarding the draft of NFPA 52. The formal balloting process has been initiated and Carl expects it to be completed by the end of February. The next step in the process will be NFPA's publishing a Report on Comments documenting the results of the balloting.

The technical committee will meet again in June (in Las Vegas) to go over the results. Following the NFPA standards development process, Carl expects that the new NFPA 52 will be published in August 2006.

There was a meeting at NFPA (Quincy, MA) on January 25th involving the NFPA Hydrogen Consulting Group, the executive director of the NFPA Fire Protection Research Foundation and other interested parties. The objective of the meeting was to provide input to the Foundation in identifying priority research topics relating to hydrogen technology and infrastructure safety. The Foundation does not have research facilities of its own, but plays the role of fund developer and project manager for projects which then have a direct communications link to NFPA's codes and standards development activities.

Examples of specific items proposed as high priority research topics were:

• Requirements for the siting of fueling stations
• Requirements for siting stationary fuel cell projects
• Requirements for hydride storage systems

The Foundation is using the results of the meeting to define a research agenda.

The Minutes of the meeting are available here (52Kb PDF).

8.0 REPORT ON ICC ACTIVITIES
Darren Meyers (Secretariat for the ICC Ad Hoc Committee for Hydrogen Gas) reported on ICC activities. The Ad Hoc Committee conducted a teleconference meeting on January 24. The meeting covered: (i) items affecting hydrogen in the 2004/05 Proposed Changes Monogram; and (ii) developing a strategy for hydrogen and fuel cell industry participation in the ICC 2005 Code Development Hearings scheduled for February 21 - March 2 in Cincinnati, OH.

Darren reported that 30 hydrogen-related items have been proposed for incorporation into three ICC codes:

• International Fire Code (IFC)
• International Fuel Gas Code (IFGC)
• International Mechanical Code (IMC)

The 30 proposals include those formulated by the Ad Hoc Committee, as well as by other organizations.

Darren suspects that the proposals that are likely to be the most "contentious" are four proposals for the IFC:

1. Proposal F187-04/05: Table Specifying Minimum Separation for Gaseous Hydrogen Dispensers, Compressors, Generators and Storage vessels
2. Proposal F189-04/05: Requirements for Gaseous Hydrogen Compression and Storage Equipment Located on Canopy Tops
3. Proposal F192-04/05: Requirements for Indoor Ventilation
4. Proposal F 256-04/05: Requirements for Hydrogen Cutoff Rooms

In addition, Darren suspects that the proposal relating to metal hydride F236-04/05 is also likely to be "contentious". This proposal calls for deleting the following from the IFC:

3503.1.6 Hydrogen Gas Absorbed in Solids; The hazard classification of the metal hydride storage system as required by Section 2701.2.2 shall be based on the hydrogen stored without regard to the metal hydride content

3503.1.6.1 Listed System. Metal hydride storage systems shall be listed for the application and designed in a manner that prevents the removal of the metal hydride.

NHA, in the December 2004 issue of "The Hydrogen Safety Report," gives a summary listing of the proposals and the ICC code for which each is being proposed.

The Safety Report is available at the following website:

www.hydrogensafety.info

Darren also reported that next (and possibly) the last meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee-- as we know it -- is scheduled for June 1 - 2, 2005 at the ICC office in Country Club Hills, IL. ICC executive management will be making the decision regarding continuation of the Committee as an ICC entity.

9.0 REPORT MEETING OF ISO TC/197 WORKING GROUP (WG)
12
Jim Ohi reported on the third meeting of ISO/TC197 Working Group 12 (WG12) (Hydrogen Fuel - Product Specification) held January 24 - 26 in San Francisco. The objective was to develop the initial table specifying the hydrogen fuel contaminants (and levels) that will be the basis for formulating a draft ISO Technical Specification for hydrogen for PEM fuel cells in road vehicles. The objective in developing the Technical Specification is to establish hydrogen fuel quality specifications for fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) in demonstration and testing and evaluating programs. It will be incorporated in ISO 14687:1999 (Hydrogen Fuel - Product Specification) so that the standard more adequately addresses hydrogen-powered Fuel Cell Vehicles.

Jim reported that "significant progress" was made in reaching a consensus regarding allowable contaminating constituents in hydrogen fuel and allowable levels. There were no participants from Europe at the meeting.

There will be an informal follow-up meeting in March - to come to a consensus regarding the contaminants table and the text for the Technical Specification.

Jim stated that the members of the US Technical Advisory Groups (TAGs) will be involved in reviewing the Technical Specification when it is drafted.

There will be a formal meeting of WG12 in May 2005 in Japan to officially address the Technical Specification and send it to the full ISO TC/197 Committee for approval.

Jim stated that the Technical Specification will have been adopted by the time of the USFCC Fuel Cell Seminar scheduled for November 2005 in Palm Springs, CA.

10. UPDATE ON OTHER ISO TC/197 ACTIVITIES
Bob Mauro and Debbie Angerman reported on ISO TC/197 activities, other than Working Group 12.

(1) US Comments on ISO/CD 16111, Transportable gas storage devices-Hydrogen absorbed in reversible metal hydride, were confirmed by a January 19 teleconference meeting of the participants. The comments are to be submitted later in February. Ned Stetson is the project leader.

(2) The United States had three representatives at a Joint TC 197 WG6/TC 58/SC 3 meeting in Paris that addressed comments from 5-part DIS 15869, Gaseous hydrogen and hydrogen blends-Land vehicle fuel tanks. Norm Newhouse reported that the results were mostly acceptable for the U.S. There will be a follow up meeting in Cologne April 4-6 (tentatively), and a follow up DIS vote is then planned.

Upcoming meetings include the following:

• ISO/TC 197 WG5/TC 22, Joint Working Group to address technical issues for next revision of ISO 17268 (SAE J2600) -- February 21-22 in Annecy Le Vieux, France
• ISO/TC 197 US TAG Meeting--March 29, Washington DC
• ISO/TC 197 WG12 Meeting--May 24-26, Kyoto Japan

11.0 REPORT ON STATUS OF IEEE 1547.2
Questions were asked regarding the status of IEEE 1547.2 (Application Guide to 1547: Standard for Interconnecting Distributed Resources with Electric Power Systems) Specifically, there was the issue of whether or not funding was available from DOE to continue the activity on the planned schedule.

After the teleconference meeting Tom Basso (NREL) gave the following report on the status of the activity:

The P1547.2 standards development project is continuing to make progress. However, it is likely that the 2005 planned target for P1547.2 ballot will be delayed. Excerpt from P1547-2Minutes20040420: 'At the meeting of the full IEEE Standard P1547.2 (Draft Application Guide for IEEE Standard 1547, Standard for Interconnecting Distributed Resources with Electric Power Systems) Work Group that was held on April 20-22, 2004 in San Francisco, California, the P1547.2 working group chair, Mr. Dick Friedman, indicated that funding from the Department of Energy was still an issue. He was hopeful that sufficient funding would be available to allow the development of IEEE P1547.2 to continue on schedule'.

12.0 REPORTS BY CDOS AND SDOS WITH RESPECT TO
COORDINATION ISSUES
Ron Sims reported on SAE activities.

1. SAE J2615 (Performance Testing of FC Systems) was published in early January. J2616, J2617, and J2572 are expected to published in the next two or three months.

2. Two new J numbers have been issued: J2719, SAE TIR (Hydrogen Compositional Guideline); and J2722 (Recommended Practice for Assessing Fuel Cell Durability).

3. At the January 20th 2005 meeting of the SAE Fuel Cell Standards Committee (FCSC) at Troy, the Committee decided to reduce its number of meetings from nine to six each year, and has subsequently deleted the March and June meetings from this year's schedule. The revised 2005 schedule is available on the SAE website, http://www.sae.org.

4. The next meeting of the SAE FCSC will be held on February 17th at the SAE Troy office and will be chaired by Mike Steele.

NEXT MEETING
The next meeting will be the March/April meeting - which will be an integral part of the National Codes and Standards Workshop for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells which will be conducted in Washington, DC in conjunction with the NHA's 16th Annual US Hydrogen Conference and Hydrogen Exp. The Workshop will be a joint DOE/NHA/NREL/USFCC activity.

• DATE: March 29th (Tuesday)
• TIME: 8:00 am - 2:00 pm EST

The (draft) agenda appears in Section 4.0 above.

Provisions will be made for teleconferencing the Workshop for persons unable to be in Washington.

One of the action items at the Workshop will be to attempt to see if it is possible to formulate a name for the USFCC, DOE/HQ, NREL and NHA consolidated codes and standards coordination activities (together with the possibility of bringing other coordinating groups to the table as well).

Respectfully submitted,
Russell Hewett