Safety concepts hydrogen

The share of renewable energies will increase significantly in the coming years. Because of the well-known volatility of some of these clean energies, efficient energy storage and carrier technologies will be the key to assure a stable and reliable energy supply in the post-fossil period. Therefore, Hydrogen will play a very important role for that.

In contrast to the existing production facilities for hydrogen we have to be aware of a new safety related situation. Unlike chemical and petrochemical plants like refineries where there is a restricted public access and operations are controlled by specialists and skilled people the new “hydrogen economy” will be widely distributed with a lot of potential public contact points and respective hazards. Therefor there is a need for new safety concepts and special education programs for people who encounter hydrogen applications. Conformity Assessment can help to establish such elements of a new safety culture quickly and efficiently.

In some of my columns during the last months, I already reported about the efforts of the international standard organizations and of the conformity assessment systems in this very important matter. Today I will explain the latest achievements. The first meeting of the new IECEx working group 19: Hydrogen took place remotely at the end of October. The following potential business cases have been discussed:

IECEx Equipment scheme:

• For products used in Hydrogen-applications there are many IIC – certificates available. For potential new customers appropriate marketing messages for the explanation of the meaning of IIC should be developed.
• A big gap of knowledge exists with regard to the non electrical Ex-protection and the special dangers of hydrogen. Explosion group IIC is just covering the explosion protection techniques flameproof “d” and intrinsic safety “i”. The method in ISO 80079 – 36 is the “safety by construction”. Here we need solutions to avoid ignition sources with very low energies if the equipment is in contact with Hydrogen/air mixtures. Mechanical Arcs, electrostatic discharges (even corona type), catalytic surface reactions (Chemical ignition sources) shall be considered carefully. Under the cover of IEC 60079-46: assemblies and the risk assessment procedure in IEC 80079-36 a special program for assemblies like compressors intended for use in Hydrogen applications could be established.
• The well established IECEx Certified Equipment Scheme  could be used as a basis for a certification program for complete electrolysers with reference to the ISO 22734 and fuel cell systems with reference to IEC 62282-3 and -5.

Service facility scheme

• Service providers working for and in hydrogen hazardous areas shall be competent concerning the special properties of that gas like the very low ignition energy, the almost invisible combustion flame, the low density etc. The IECEx Certified Services Scheme could be used to address tailor made certification programs for
  • Installation companies
  • Engineering and planning companies including Zone classification
  • Inspection & Maintenance providers

Special reference could be given to the ISO standards 19880 or the ISO TS15916.

Personal Competency scheme

• New Units of competency for the design, production and test of machines and assemblies for use in and for the operators working in hydrogen facilities could be developed as well as for experts working for service providers.
• A special hydrogen-training program for Recognized Training Providers (RTP) Program would be very helpful.

This collection of ideas is not complete. In a first step to start such a special hydrogen campaign for IECEx all certification bodies have been ask to fill out a special questionnaire published by the IECEx office. At the beginning of 2022 the results of that activity will be discussed at the IECEx executive.

Very important for the further work is a close relation to the standardization bodies. In November two meetings of the representatives of IEC TC 31, ISO TC 197 and IECEx took place. In an open and friendly atmosphere, the participants agreed to start a close relationship to develop appropriate programs and concepts for the hydrogen economy.