Proceedings of Hydrogen Safety Workshops

March 2005
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Minutes of the National Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Codes & Standards Coordinating Committee
by Russell Hewett

March 29, 2005
Marriott-Wardman Park Hotel
Washington, DC
8:00 am - 2:30 pm (EST)


The joint In-Person March/April meeting of the DOE Hydrogen Codes and Standards Coordinating Committee, the USFCC Codes and Standards Working Group and the NHA Codes and Standards Committee was the National Codes & Standards Workshop for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells. The Workshop was convened by NHA in conjunction with its 2005 16th Annual US Hydrogen Conference and Hydrogen Expo in Washington, DC during the period March 29 - April 1, 2005.

The three organizations have initiated the process to establish what is being tentatively called the National Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Codes & Standards Coordinating Committee.

Agenda and Summary of Discussions
Download the agenda for the workshop (200Kb PDF)


1.0 Participants
Download the list of registered attendees (47Kb Excel spreadsheet)


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 Report and Feedback Session on the DOE/Sandia/NREL Risk Assessment Workshop
Chris Moen (Sandia/Livermore) gave the presentation on the results from the DOE/Sandia/NREL Risk Assessment Workshop held at NREL on March 10, 2005.
Download the presentation (425Kb PDF)


4.0 Report of the Work to Develop and International Codes and Standards Template
Jim Ohi (NREL) reported on the effort to develop a template for United States participation in international standards and global technical regulations.
Download the presentation (915Kb PDF)


5.0 Report on NHA Codes & Standards Working Groups
Karen Hall (NHA) reported on the structure and accomplishments of the working groups comprising NHA's Codes and Standards Committee.
Download the presentation (237Kb PDF)


6.0 Hydrogen Quality/Overview
Jim Ohi (NREL) gave an overview of the work of ISO TC/197 Working Group 12 (WG12) (Hydrogen Fuel - Product Specification) to develop 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 (Hydrogen Fuel - Product Specification) so that it more adequately addresses requirements for hydrogen-fueled PEM fuel cell road vehicles.
Download the presentation (755Kb PDF)


7.0 Activities of the USFCC Joint Hydrogen Quality Task Force
Bill Collins (UTC Fuel Cells) gave a status report on the efforts of the USFCC Joint Hydrogen Quality Task Force to generate a document establishing hydrogen fuel quality requirements for vehicles. Bill's presentation is attached.
Download the presentation (148Kb PDF)


8.0 SAE Activities
Ron Sims (chairman of the SAE Fuel Cell Standards Committee and Consultant to NREL) reported on the work of SAE's Hydrogen Quality Task Force to develop an evolving Hydrogen Quality Guideline for the vehicular refueling interface.
Download the presentation (168Kb PDF)


9.0 California Fuel Cell Partnership (CaFCP) Actitivities
Adam Gromis (Program Specialist for CaFCP) gave a verbal report on CaFCP hydrogen quality activities.
Download the presentation (4504Kb PDF)


10.0 Report on Hydrogen Quality Test Plan
During the working lunch, Jim Ohi (NREL) gave a presentation on the strategy and plan for testing for impurities in hydrogen for PEM fuel cells for vehicles.
Download the presentation (948Kb PDF)


11.0 USFCC Codes and Standards Priorities
Sondra Ullman (chairperson of USFCC Codes and Standards Working Group) gave a presentation on the organization's priorities.
Download the presentation (32Kb PDF)


12.0 National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Activities
Carl Rivkin (NFPA) reported on the status of NFPA hydrogen-related efforts.
Download the presentation (254Kb PDF)


13.0 International Code Council (ICC) Activities
Darren Meyers (ICC) reported on the status of ICC hydrogen-related efforts. Of special significance is that ICC management is likely to terminate the Ad Hoc Committee for Hydrogen Gas. The Committee was instrumental in: (i) formulating most of the hydrogen-safety related requirements proposed for incorporation into the ICC family of codes; and (ii) steering them successfully through the ICC code development process.
Download the presentation (214Kb PDF)


14.0 Additional Items of Discussion

14.1 Establishment of the National Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Codes and Standards Coordinating Committee

For the past several years, there have been several organized hydrogen and/or fuel cell codes and standards coordinating activities that addressed coordination of codes and standards development efforts across various CDOs and SDOs and for various applications. Three such organized efforts are as follows:
  • DOE Hydrogen Codes and Standards Coordinating Committee (HC&SCC)

  • USFCC Codes and Standards Working Group

  • NHA Codes and Standards Committee.
For the past several months, the DOE HC&SCC and the USFCC C&S Working Group have been successfully conducting joint monthly meetings. The NHA has been involved with the DOE HC&SCC since inception. The NHA has recently formed a C&S Steering Committee, who will also now participate in the monthly telecons.

The three organizations are proposing consolidating their efforts into a single entity that is tentatively being called the National Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Codes and Coordinating Committee. An initial action item is development of a Mission Statement for the Committee. It might include:
  • Working collaboratively to support and facilitate development of needed new hydrogen and fuel cell codes and standards and/or facilitate incorporation of safety requirements into existing codes and standards

  • Supporting and facilitating technical/operational consistency and harmonization among and across codes and standards developed by different organizations

  • Promoting dissemination and sharing of codes and standards development information

  • Promoting collaboration in order to facilitate codes and standards development efforts and minimize needless duplications of efforts
Persons that volunteered to serve on a task force to develop the Mission Statement were:
  • Karen Hall (NHA)
  • Russ Hewett (NREL)
  • Darren Meyers (ICC)
  • Susan Townsend (Chairperson of the NHA C&S Committee)
  • Sondra Ullman (Chairperson of the USFCC C&S Working Group)
  • Robert Wichert (USFCC)
The starting point in developing the Statement will be the current Mission Statement for the DOE HC&SCC.
Download the Mission Statement (92Kb PDF)

Next Meeting
The next meeting of the National Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Codes and Standards Coordinating Committee will be a May teleconference meeting:

DATE: May 4th (First Wednesday)
TIME: 3:00 - 4:30 pm EST
2:00 - 3:30 pm CST
1:00 - 2:30 pm MST
Noon - 1:30 pm PST

The call-in number and pass code (the numbers that USFCC uses) and the draft agenda will be provided in the FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT in late April. Likely agenda items will include:

1. How to best utilize the meetings - with respect to topics to be covered
2. Mission Statement
3. Possibilities for next In-Person meeting (or workshop)

Next US Tag Team Meeting
The next US TAG Team meeting will be conducted on July 18 - 19, 2005 at the SAE headquarters in Troy, MI.