Hydrogen Safety Codes and Standards—The Development
Process Defined
by Karen
Miller, Coordinator, National Hydrogen Association
There are many codes and standards activities
going on at the NHA in order to help overcome some of the nontechnical barriers
to the commercialization of hydrogen energy technologies. The 8th Annual
U.S. Hydrogen Meeting, held in Alexandria, Virginia, U.S.A., in March
[1997] hosted both a workshop and a technical session on codes and standards,
as well as a poster submittal in the poster session. Another codes and standards
workshop is being planned for July.
There are presently no codes and standards available
which adequately address the emerging hydrogen energy applications. Therefore,
the NHA has organized work groups to address the issue of future standards
for hydrogen. The hydrogen challenge is to develop a hydrogen energy future
that is safe, while retaining the flexibility to design innovative hydrogen
products and systems for the future.
The three work groups (WG1–Connectors,
chaired by Matthew Fairlie; WG2–Containers, chaired by Jim Hansel;
and WG3–Service Stations, chaired by Allan Coutts) have come a long
way in developing draft standards which may someday be used by the hydrogen
industry. Because of this, this article describes the process the NHA is
utilizing to develop standards.
Technical support is being offered on key technical
issues for the work groups by: Steve Frank of Washington Gas Light Company,
who has served on the NGV2 Standard Committee since its inception; Dr. Michael
Swain, Associate Professor of the University of Miami, who is investigating
leak rates and explosive limits and impacts; and Dr. Robert Zalosh, of Worcester
Polytechnic Institute, who is coordinating with National Fire Protection
Association (NFPA).
The work groups are actively striving to involve
standards organizations in the process of hydrogen standards development.
American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and NFPA involvement has
been sought for setting hydrogen standards and continuing the development
of standards for containers and service stations.
During one of the workshops, Tony O’Neil
of NFPA discussed their standards process. NFPA must be petitioned on a
standard. It then sends a proposal out for comment. If there is sufficient
interest, a committee is created to develop that standard. ASME has a similar
approach to setting standards.
Specific progress for the work groups to date
are as follows:
Work Group 1: Connectors developed a
work plan that consisted of Review NGV-1, ISO/TC22, and ASME proceedings
for connector activities, investigate standards process, specifications
and costs. They are in the process of preparing a draft standard before
the next meeting to be held in June or July. This draft will be sent to
various nozzle manufacturers for review and comment.
Work Group 2: Containers met to review
a draft guideline for hydrogen containers titled GHV-2 which is derivative
of NGV-2. A guideline differs from a standard in that it is a document of
recommended practices, based on what we as a community know today. It is
designed to allow for innovative ideas and approaches from industry to help
the document evolve into a more comprehensive document, possibly a standard,
in the future. The key differences between the 55-page draft guideline and
the NGV-2 standard are in the areas of hydride storage, temperature rise
during quick fill, leak testing, odorants, hydrogen specification, hydrogen
embrittlement of steels, permeation tests with organic wraps, welding, and
heat treatment.
A detailed review of the guideline is occurring
now. In the spring a revised GHV-2 draft will be brought before the ASME
Council on Codes and Standards to develop it as an ASME document. In addition,
the outline of this draft has been submitted to the International Standards
Organization in order to be discussed at the upcoming ISO meeting being
held in conjunction with the 8th Canadian Hydrogen Workshop at the end of
May. We are in the process of sending the draft to all previously-identified
container manufacturers for their comment, and expect to have their comments
available to the members at the next workshop, scheduled for 24-25 July.
Work Group 3: Service Stations met to
discuss a draft standard that is similar to NFPA 52 for service stations.
The group planned to get NHA Board input on detection, collect comments,
check reference and numbers in the standard, update the strawman, and submit
a proposal to NFPA and the strawman to the NHA membership in March. After
review and comment on the strawman, a proposed standard was to be submitted
to NFPA in July.
The NHA learned shortly following this meeting
that NFPA has a three-year cycle for proposal submissions, and the next
window was to close in January. We therefore had to act quickly and submit
the draft to NFPA just to be considered in the upcoming three-year proposal
cycle. It is understood that this is a draft submittal, and future changes
are permitted. Because of this required quick turn-around, this draft standard
has not yet gone out to the membership for comment. In addition, the outline
of this draft also was submitted for ISO review. These reviews will occur
concurrently with the NFPA review.
The progress made thus far in the work groups
put NHA firmly on the path to proposing three hydrogen standards in a year
and launching an ISO standards effort at its next meeting in the spring.
As always, member comments and participation are strongly encouraged.
©1997. All Rights Reserved. A Publication of
the National Hydrogen Association.
This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Home Page • Return to NHA News Index