Risk Assessment for Hydrogen Codes and Standards

The development and promulgation of codes and standards are essential to establish a market-receptive environment for commercial, hydrogen-based products and systems. The focus of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is to conduct the research and development (R&D) needed to strengthen the scientific basis for technical requirements incorporated in national and international standards, codes and regulations. In the U.S., the DOE and its industry partners have formed a Codes and Standards Tech Team (CSTT) to help guide the R&D. The CSTT has adopted an R&D Roadmap to achieve a substantial and verified database of the properties and behaviour of hydrogen and the performance characteristics of emerging hydrogen technology applications sufficient to enable the development of effective codes and standards for these applications. However, to develop a more structured approach to the R&D described above, the CSTT conducted a workshop on Risk Assessment for Hydrogen Codes and Standards in March 2005. The purpose of the workshop was to attain a consensus among invited experts on the protocols and data needed to address the development of risk-informed standards, codes, and regulations for hydrogen used as an energy carrier by consumers. Participants at the workshop identified and assessed requirements, methodologies, and applicability of risk assessment (RA) tools to develop a framework to conduct RA activities to address, for example, hydrogen fuel distribution, delivery, on-site storage, and dispensing, and hydrogen vehicle servicing and parking. The CSTT was particularly interested in obtaining the advice of RA experts and representatives of standards and model code developing organizations and industry on how data generated by R&D can be turned into information that is suitable for hydrogen codes and standards development. The paper reports on the results of the workshop and the RA activities that the DOE’s program on hydrogen safety, codes and standards will undertake. These RA activities will help structure a comprehensive R&D effort that the DOE and its industry partners are undertaking to obtain the data and conduct the analysis and testing needed to establish a scientific and technical basis for hydrogen standards, codes, and regulations.