UNECE’s World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29) adopted on 27 June 2013 a United Nations Global Technical Regulation (UN GTR) governing the safety of hydrogen and fuel cell-powered vehicles (HFCVs). This new UN GTR represents the first international legislation in this field. HFCVs can use either internal combustion engines fueled by liquefied hydrogen or fuel-cells fueled by compressed gaseous hydrogen. Hydrogen fueled vehicles are typically powered by fuel-cell power systems which generate electric power electrochemically. The UN GTR specifies provisions to ensure that such vehicles attain the same safety level as conventional gasoline vehicles. The new UN GTR specifies safety-related performance requirements for HFCVs, aiming at protecting occupants from fire or explosion of the hydrogen on-board containers. It also includes requirements to prevent electric shock to occupants or first responders in case of a crash. The high-voltage safety provisions adopted today for HFCVs can be used in the future UN GTR that the World Forum is preparing to encompass all types of electric vehicles (irrespective of the technology used to generate power). The adoption of this new UN GTR could help foster interest in HFCVs, in view of the potential benefits of this technology with regards to: Energy efficiency. Thanks to the elimination of the engine’s mobile parts, such as pistons, HFCVs generally achieve between 40–60% energy efficiency, compared to 25% in conventional internal combustion engine vehicles. Emissions reduction. HFCVs do not produce harmful tailpipe emissions. They could thus help reduce vehicles’ emissions of harmful gaseous pollutants, provided some bottlenecks are overcome. These include: (i) the safe and economically-sound mass production of hydrogen from other sources than fossil fuels, (ii) the development of refueling infrastructures and (iii) safe mass-scale transportation of hydrogen. The text of the UN GTR, which takes into account existing standards and regulations from Canada, China, the European Union, Japan, Korea and the United States, is available at: http://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/trans/doc/2013/wp29/ECE-TRANS-WP29-2013-041e.pdf

Safety regulations for hydrogen vehicles. Government level activity. US represented by the US Department of Transportation. Global Technical Regulations (GTR) is: 1. Process for developing and promulgating motor vehicle safety standards and/or regulations for motor vehicles by participating countries, and 2. The standards and/or regulations emanating from that process. The GTR concept was created by the 1998 UN Global Agreement to harmonize, internationally, vehicle regulations and make vehicle parts produced under GTR’s available for sale in any country. The signatories to the Global Agreement include: · United States · European Community · Canada · Japan · Germany · Russian Federation · Republic of Korea · Peoples Republic of China (efforts are being devoted to establish one or more GTR’s that address safety requirements for hydrogen powered fuel cell vehicles) The World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE/WP29) has the lead role in the global harmonization of automotive regulations - focusing on vehicles at the time of manufacturing.