Risk Assessment for Hydrogen Codes and Standards-Paper

The development and promulgation of codes and standards are essential to establish a market-receptiveenvironment for commercial, hydrogen-based products and systems. The focus of the U.S. Department ofEnergy (DOE) is to conduct the research and development (R&D) needed to strengthen the scientificbasis for technical requirements incorporated in national and international standards, codes andregulations. In the U.S., the DOE and its industry partners have formed a Codes and Standards TechTeam (CSTT) to help guide the R&D. The CSTT has adopted an R&D Roadmap to achieve a substantialand verified database of the properties and behavior of hydrogen and the performance characteristics ofemerging hydrogen technology applications sufficient to enable the development of effective codes andstandards for these applications. However, to develop a more structured approach to the R&D describedabove, the CSTT conducted a workshop on Risk Assessment for Hydrogen Codes and Standards inMarch 2005. The purpose of the workshop was to attain a consensus among invited experts on theprotocols and data needed to address the development of risk-informed standards, codes, and regulationsfor hydrogen used as an energy carrier by consumers. Participants at the workshop identified andassessed requirements, methodologies, and applicability of risk assessment (RA) tools to develop aframework to conduct RA activities to address, for example, hydrogen fuel distribution, delivery, on-sitestorage, and dispensing, and hydrogen vehicle servicing and parking. The CSTT was particularlyinterested in obtaining the advice of RA experts and representatives of standards and model codedeveloping organizations and industry on how data generated by R&D can be turned into information thatis suitable for hydrogen codes and standards development. The paper reports on the results of theworkshop and the RA activities that the DOE?s program on hydrogen safety, codes and standards willundertake. These RA activities will help structure a comprehensive R&D effort that the DOE and itsindustry partners are undertaking to obtain the data and conduct the analysis and testing needed toestablish a scientific and technical basis for hydrogen standards, codes, and regulations.