Priorities Assessed At the Hydrogen Infrastructure Blueprint Workshop

by Robert L. Mauro, Executive Vice President, National Hydrogen Association
The Blueprint Workshop represented a continuation of a similar meeting held in October of 1999 in Sacramento, California. The overall goal is to identify needs for the development of a hydrogen transportation infrastructure. There were more than 40 attendees present. Four parallel sessions covered standardized station design, safety education, containers, and codes and standards. The pending demonstration of fuel cell vehicles by the California Fuel Cell Partnership and concern about a lack of guidance and standardization for hydrogen vehicles and infrastructure served as the backdrop.

In the area of public awareness there was a desire to develop hydrogen equipment such as lawn care implements and replacement for batteries, as well as novelty items like remote-controlled, hydrogen-powered model vehicles and boats. The standardized station design session came up with the concept of an integrated facility to conduct demonstration, testing, and training activities. Data developed at the facility would be fed into a centralized database of information that could be used by developers and researchers. The database information is envisioned to be accessible through the Internet. Another recommendation was that a hydrogen infrastructure working group coordinate closely with a natural gas working group in order to facilitate information sharing in the areas of strategy, markets, policy, and economic issues.

The Hydrogen Program is considering the following steps to begin implementing these recommendations. First is development of a web-accessible database that might be used initially to store hydrogen bus demonstration data. Second would be storage testing and verification in conjunction with the Office of Transportation Technologies at various demonstration projects. Third is a solicitation for a field verification activity in conjunction with State Energy Programs.

There were several important questions discussed but not resolved. The highest priority was the development of codes and standards; however, attendees did not determine if those codes and standards should be for all forms of hydrogen storage, dispensing, and use. With the California Fuel Cell Partnership poised to demonstrate pre-commercial vehicles and systems, are standards needed for test vehicles or are guidelines sufficient? Another interesting question pondered was how far we can go toward commercialization of passenger vehicles with high-pressure gaseous hydrogen. There was a feeling among a number of attendees that fleet vehicles and buses can use high-pressure gaseous hydrogen, but passenger vehicles would probably require the development of advanced hydrides that could be recharged at much lower pressures than compressed gaseous hydrogen. Some attendees expressed concern that the European effort to systematically understand hydrogen safety and the priorities identified in that study would set a pan-European agenda for international standards which could be detrimental to the interests of countries outside of Europe.

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