Assessment and Lessons Learnt from HIAD 2.0 – Hydrogen Incidents and Accidents Database

The Hydrogen Incidents and Accidents Database (HIAD) is an international open communication platform collecting systematic data on hydrogen-related undesired events (incidents or accidents). It was initially developed in the frame of the project HySafe, an EC co-funded NoE of the 6th Frame Work Programme by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (EC-JRC) and populated by many HySafe partners. After the end of the project, the database has been maintained and populated by JRC with publicly available events.
Starting from June 2016 JRC has been developing a new version of the database (HIAD 2.01). With the support of the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen 2 Joint Undertaking (FCH 2 JU), the structure of the database and the web-interface have been redefined and simplified, resulting in a streamlined user interface compared to the previous version of HIAD. The new version is mainly focused to facilitate the sharing of lessons learnt and other relevant information related to hydrogen technology; the database is publicly released, and the events are anonymized. The database currently contains over 250 events. It aims to contribute to improve the safety awareness, fostering the users to benefit from the experiences of others as well as to share information from their own experiences.
The FCH 2 JU launched the European Hydrogen Safety Panel (EHSP2) initiative in 2017. The mission of the EHSP is to assist the FCH 2 JU at both programme and project level in assuring that hydrogen safety is adequately managed, and to promote and disseminate hydrogen safety culture within and outside of the FCH 2 JU programme. Composed of a multidisciplinary pool of experts – 16 experts in 2018 - the EHSP is grouped in small ad-hoc working groups (task forces) according to the tasks to be performed and the expertise required. In 2018, Task Force 3 (TF3) of the ESHP has encompassed the analysis of safety data and events contained in HIAD 2.0 operated by JRC and supported by the FCH 2 JU. In close collaboration with JRC, the EHSP members have systematically reviewed more than 250 events.
This report summarizes the lessons learnt stemmed from this assessment. The report is self-explanatory and hence includes brief introduction about HIAD 2.0, the assessment carried out by the EHSP and the results stemmed from the joint assessment to enable new readers without prior knowledge of HIAD 2.0 to understand the rationale of the overall exercise and the lessons learnt from this effort. Some materials have also been lifted from the joint paper between JRC and EHSP, which will also be presented at the International Conference on Hydrogen Safety (ICHS 2019) to provide some general and specific information about HIAD 2.0.