Development of Regulation, Codes and Technical Standards

In the late 1990’s as fuel cell systems for automotive use began the first hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle fleet deployments, it became apparent that regulations, codes and technical standards needed to be developed to support mass adoption of FCEVs.

Since 2001, Bob Boyd has been supporting the development of technical standards for hydrogen fuelling and the components (devices) that make up the fuelling systems. In North America the first edition of technical standards were based on CSA Natural Gas vehicle fuelling standards.

In 2014 CSA gave those Hydrogen standards to ISO TC-197 as seed documents. Now, as ISO-18990-1 (Hydrogen Fueling Stations) is adopted by UK, Denmark, the EU, the USA, and eventually the entire world we will have global technical standards and markets for the hoses and valves, compressors and dispensers and the rest of the components of hydrogen vehicle fuelling stations.

The first edition of NFPA-2 - The Hydrogen Technology Code was published in 2012 after a 6 year effort to capture all of the relevant requirements for safe deployment of hydrogen systems in the built environment. NFPA-2 is revised on a 4 year cycle and the most recent 2020 edition reflects a significant maturation of the industries that supports deployment of infrastructure to fuel hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

ISO-TC-197-Hydrogen Technologies

The preceding photo was taken at the Annual TC-197 Plenary Meetings this past December 2019 in Grenoble, France.

Each country with a strong national hydrogen program is active in TC-197 working groups. Annually delegations of technical and public policy expert from each country meet to plan the direction of the Technical Committee efforts, review and approve new work item proposals, and present progress reports on all active document development programs

ISO TC-197 Hydrogen Technologies technical committees are developing a series of infrastructure product safety standards starting with ISO-19880-1 Hydrogen fuelling Stations, following soon with fittings, valves, hoses, compressors, and dispensers

These International Standards are being developed to support the deployment of vehicle fleets that comply with the Global Technical Regulations for Hydrogen Vehicles

Make It

Hydrogen Fuel Quality

The first task Bob Boyd worked on was developing a particle test method for measuring the solid debris that was being dispensed along with the hydrogen fuel at 350 and 700 bar (H35 and H70) .

With hydrogen gas sampling and analytical background from his late 1970s laboratory experiences, Bob Boyd was able to make significant contribution to the development of hydrogen fuel quality standard SAE J-2719/. Bob Boyd developed the particle test method eventually published as ASTM-D7651, the Gravimetric Method for Measurement of Particle Contamination in Hydrogen Fuel.

The link below is to a presentation made in November 2019 at a Chinese workshop on hydrogen technology in an effort to introduce the concepts of sampling hydrogen at the dispenser nozzle for quality control assurance (note that link to presentation goes here)

Technical Committee Participation and Leadership

NFPA-2 Technical Committee,

SAE Standards, Safety, and Interface Committees

Sponsor of SAE J-2601-3 standard for fork-lift fueling protocols

CSA Hydrogen Transportation Technology Committee, the Common Issues TAG, and Chair of the CSA HGV-4.1 TSC for Hydrogen Dispensing System.

Bob is a past Chair of the CGA Hydrogen Technology Committee, past Chair of the Hydrogen Industry Panel on Codes (HIPOC), and was an active member of both committees for many years.

Make It

Leadership in code and standard development

As a member of the Compressed Gas Association (CGA) H2 Technology Committee , Bob Boyd brought the technical requirements and support for composite hydrogen storage systems originally designed for vehicles into CGA H-5 for use as ground storage and tube trailer systems.

Bob then brought SAE J2719 fuel cell grade hydrogen into the 2011 edition of the CGA G-5.3 “Commodity Standard for Hydrogen”