Canadian Hydrogen Safety Program

1. Canadian Hydrogen Safety Program 1st International Conference on Hydrogen Safety Pisa, Italy September 8, 2005

2. Canadian Hydrogen Activity • Canada has been active in hydrogen technologies for over 30 years • ISO TC 197 Secretariat and Chair • current Chair and original signatory of IEA Hydrogen Implementing Agreement • The NRCan Hydrogen R&D program was instrumental in the development of world recognized companies such as Ballard, Stuart Energy, Hydrogenics and Dynetek • Centre of Expertise at the Hydrogen Research Institute UQTR • member of IPHE • Canada ratified the Kyoto Accord

3. Canadian Transportation Fuel Cell Alliance • initiative under Government of Canada’s Action Plan 2000 for Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emission reduction • launched June 2001 • Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) manages the program • focus on the development of a hydrogen fuelling infrastructure for vehicles and the development of hydrogen fuelled vehicles

4. CTFCA C&S Working Group The mandate of the Codes & Standards WG is to facilitate the development and market implementation of practical and safe codes and standards in support of: • CTFCA Demonstration Projects • A broader utilization of hydrogen as an energy carrier within Canada

5. CTFCAWork Plan A work plan was developed to define the scope of the group’s activities. The work plan focused on 3 primary tasks: • Codes and Standards development • dissemination of packaged materials for stakeholders • fundamental safety analysis

6. The Canadian Hydrogen Safety Program The Program grew out of Task 3 “Fundamental Safety Analysis” The Program’s objective is to facilitate acceptance of the products, services and systems of the Canadian Hydrogen Industry by the Canadian Hydrogen Stakeholder Community: • Industrial – to facilitate trade • Insurers – to ensure fair insurance rates • Regulators – to ensure effective and efficient approval procedures • General Public – to ensure diverse interests are accommodated

7. The Need • Minimum safety of hydrogen systems is established by C&S that are based on experience in large scale systems such as industrial plants and aerospace systems • Lack of experience with hydrogen systems in consumer environments leads to unnecessarily restrictive C&S requirements based on these large scale system guidelines • A reference for new hydrogen systems like refuelling stations should be similar to facilities for related fuels like natural gas • Thus, there is a requirement to establish a quantitative reference for hydrogen systems with respect to directly analogous fuel systemslike CNG

8. The Approach • Acceptability of new systems via Risk Assessment (RA) • RA assists in making system integrity and safety design decisions: • It provides a more complete awareness of all hazards • Where risks are either not known or not well understood, it provides an assessment of acceptability • Uses state-of-the-art models to calculate failure probabilities, failure consequences and risk levels • Provides accurate and objective risk estimates for each system component taking into account risk mitigation • RA assists designers, management, the general public, insurance companies and regulators in risk decisions and results in improved safety performance

9. Modify Risk Mitigation Measures UNACCEPTABLE Consequence Analysis OK System Description Hazard Identification Risk Estimation Evaluate Risk Operate System Frequency Analysis Risk Criteria The Foundation • CAN/CSA/IEC-300-3-9-97 Standard “Risk Analysis of Technological Systems” • Unifying framework to the projects and input to IEA Task 19 is based upon the linear QRA process outlined in the standard.

10. The Projects The Program consists of four projects: • Comparative quantitative risk assessment of hydrogen and natural gas fuelling stations • Validation, calibration and enhancement of CFD modeling capabilities for simulation of hydrogen releases and dispersion using available experimental databases • Enhancement of frequency and probability analysis, and consequence analysis of key component failures of hydrogen systems • Fuel Cell Oxidant Outlet Hydrogen Sensor Project

11. Project 1 Comparative quantitative risk assessment of hydrogen and natural gas fueling stations

12. Project 1 Generic station site plan for HazID • Station Perimeter • The generic station consists (regardless of technology) of the following major components or “boxes”: • fuel delivery / on-site production (will also include purification for reformer technology); • compression; • storage; • dispensing / vehicle interface (vehicles themselves are excluded). Station Convenience Store Car Wash Fuel delivery / Generation on-site Purification / Compression Storage Dispenser

13. Project 2 Validation, calibration and enhancement of CFD modeling capabilities for simulation of hydrogen releases and dispersion using available experimental databases

14. Project 2 Examples of CFD modeling validation

15. Project 3 Enhancement of frequency and probability analysis, and consequence analysis of key component failures of hydrogen systems. Key elements: • frequency and probability analysis • consequence analysis • key componentry failures database – experimental studies

16. Project 3 Experimental studies to be carried out in this subtask have the two objectives to provide: • Validation data for the CFD models for selected project applications • Validation of accident progression analysis as obtained via fault and event trees quantitative consequence data for risk analysis

17. Project 4 Fuel Cell Oxidant Outlet Hydrogen Sensor Project • to evaluate and improve the state of technology for hydrogen sensors used in the oxidant outlet of an automotive fuel cell system Deliverables: • a requirements document to be submitted to CTFCA C&S WG and then forwarded to ISO and/or SAE for consideration • establishment of H2 sensor testing capability (including test station) at the NRC Institute for Fuel Cell Innovation (Vancouver, BC) • provide feedback to sensor suppliers regarding suitability of their sensor technology • CTFCA Report on the State of the Technology – Oxidant Outlet Sensors

18. 1 – ambient / garage 2 – passenger compartment 3 – fuel storage area & high-pressure piping 4 – fuel cell system area 5A–fuel cell oxidant outlet 5B – vehicle exhaust 1 2 3 4 5B 5A Project 4

19. Co-Author Contact Information Andrei Tchouvelev: • atchouvelev@tchouvelev.org Bob Hay: • bobhay@tisec.com Joe Wong: • Joe.Wong@powertechlabs.com Jeff Grant: • jeff.grant@ballard.com Pierre Bénard: • Pierre_Benard@UQTR.CA

20. Contact Information • CTFCA website http://ctfca.nrcan.gc.ca (English) http://acpct.rncan.gc.ca (French) • or contact: Ian MacIntyre Hydrogen, Fuel Cells and Transportation Energy CANMET Energy Technology Centre Natural Resources Canada 580 Booth Street Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0E4 Tel: 613-943-2257 Email: imacinty@nrcan.gc.ca