Overcoming technical and administrative barriers to deployment of multi-fuel hydrogen refuelling stations (HRS)
The main aim of this topic is to provide guidance to assist the deployment of gaseous hydrogen dispensing in a multi-fuel environment across EU, overcoming the technical and administrative barriers consistently by using a clear, transparent and scientifically sound methodology. The work should therefore tackle at least the following objectives:
1. Detailed investigation of current status:
A comprehensive review of existing (i) permitting requirements (and where applicable public guidance) and (ii) risk assessment (including, for example hazardous areas and safety distances) methodologies used across EU for hydrogen in multi-fuel refuelling stations. This should also include and complete safety requirements established already by FCH 2 JU projects [76] such as HyLaw, H2ME, HyFive etc. and from other relevant stakeholders groupings, such as the Sector Forum Gas Infrastructure WG Mobility (SFGI WG Mobility) [77]. The project should therefore go beyond these activities and perform more detailed investigations into the approaches taken for hydrogen dispensers in different EU countries, for both light duty and heavy-duty road vehicles.
The full scope of requirements should be covered, including zoning, risk assessment with accidental scenarios and leak sizes, and the relevant parts of permitting. The project should identify and critically assess relevant documentation (e.g. safety studies) which have contributed to the installation of HRS or development of normative rules. This should include investigating whether or not there is a route to a common approach that can be justified to regulators and other relevant authorizing parties across EU, in order to simplify the installation of hydrogen dispensers, particularly in cases where these are co-located with other fuels and often subject to authorization processes that differ from stand-alone stations.
2. Practical research to address gaps in current understanding:
The principal scope of the experimental campaign should be the hydrogen dispensing system. Taking into consideration the identified approaches for risk assessment, the project should perform an experimental research campaign for the characterization of potential hydrogen leaks that contribute to risk assessment for a hydrogen dispensing system (leak sizes, likelihood, suitability of control measures etc.). The project should undertake a theoretical and experimental research focused on the characterization of hydrogen leaks with their potential (leak size, likelihood and leak rate) and their effects (explosion, fire). Generic types of equipment (non-standardised and if available, standardised fuelling components/systems) used in dispenser systems should be considered. A wide practical testing campaign shall be performed on such components to determine and justify hole size assumptions used in hazardous area or separation distance calculations. The first step includes tests on critical HRS equipment in order to determine the frequency of leak and the size of the leak with test cycles. In the same philosophy, the critical safety barriers could be tested in order to determine their reliability. The second step should include a quantification of the scenarios generated by these leaks: probability of the event (with the previous data) and the effects (with dispersion study by computational tools). The consequences of expected usage scenarios, for example, temperature and pressure cycles, aging, improper use, impacts for leaks of other fuels, etc. should be considered within this research.
3. Generate best practice guidance:
Using the findings from the points above, develop best practice guidelines that can be utilised as common approach to risk assessments (e.g. related to zoning, separation distances etc.) addressing the permitting requirements as well as safe designs for hydrogen refuelling stations in a multi-fuel context. The effect of proximity to the other components of the refuelling station (e.g. storage tanks, compressors, etc.) should also be considered in this part.
This guidance should be prepared in a manner that can be applied throughout EU to help the development of national guidance/requirements where applicable and in a consistent manner. It should support the development of common assumptions for hazardous area classification for hydrogen dispensers across EU. The data collected should enable the development of the minimum requirements in standards (and regulations and codes if appropriate) such that they offer an improved reliability to those currently used, and an appropriate level of safety for customers using the stations without excessive costs or other issues relating to unnecessarily conservative estimates. Guidance documents should be developed for performing example zoning/risk assessments for both (a) hydrogen-only dispenser and (b) the additional hazards from collocating hydrogen equipment with other fuel dispensing equipment in a multi-fuel context.
4. Engagement with permitting authorities and standards developing organisations (SDOs):
The consortium should build a network of public authorities and use existing networks or forums, such as HySafe [78] to foster engagement, knowledge and experience sharing. By engaging with a network of public authorities, the consortium should share the relevant materials developed within the project to support the drafting of guidelines for HRS developers.
Finally, it should foster exchanges of best practices with Mission Innovation IC-8 (and IPHE countries). All Member States and EEA countries should, at least be invited to join a network of public authorities. SDOs should also be engaged to foster better uptake of the project results.
Any safety-related event that may occur during execution of the project shall be reported to the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) dedicated mailbox JRC-PTT-H2SAFETY@ec.europa.eu , which manages the European hydrogen safety reference database, HIAD and the Hydrogen Event and Lessons LEarNed database, HELLEN.
The project should contribute towards the activities of Mission Innovation - Hydrogen Innovation Challenge. Cooperation with entities from Hydrogen Innovation Challenge member countries, which are neither EU Member States nor Horizon 2020 Associated countries, is encouraged (see chapter 3.3 for the list of countries eligible for funding, and point G. International Cooperation).
The FCH 2 JU considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of EUR 2 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected duration: 3 years
[76] https://www.fch.europa.eu/page/fch-ju-projects
[77] https://www.cen.eu/work/areas/energy/Gas/Pages/default.aspx
The development of a widely available hydrogen vehicle refuelling infrastructure across EU will need hydrogen to be able to be dispensed in a straight-forward manner alongside other conventional and alternative fuels. Whilst the Directive 2014/94/EU on the Deployment of Alternative Fuels Infrastructure (AFID) [75] introduces interoperability requirements for individual alternative fuels, and, in the future, requirements on the number of distances between refuelling/recharging points, it will not necessarily enable this infrastructure to be provided in a multi-fuel/multi-energy forecourt.
Currently the approach taken to co-location of hydrogen and other fuels is left to be defined on a national basis. This can have a variation of effects: in some cases is straight-forward to co-locate hydrogen with other fuels and integrate hydrogen into a conventional forecourt, in others the provision of hydrogen can be subject to not insignificant minimum separation distances from other fuels, with a hydrogen dispenser needing to be either on an ‘island’ on its own or located away from the forecourt (or even not be permitted at all).
The definition of safety recommendations for including hydrogen in a multi-fuel configuration requires zoning and risk assessment. Furthermore, the different approaches to zoning taken around EU can make it difficult for a standard dispenser product to be designed/manufactured/installed without significant additional justification, or alterations to the design (even though the dispensers typically use components that barely differ). One key missing element to enable standardised zoning and risk assessment is the characterization of the leaks that can be anticipated from hydrogen dispensing technologies and their effects (fire, explosion).
To address this gap, experimental data from engineering research on H2 leaks for HRS is necessary, including analysis of their effects and the reliability of the safety barriers typically employed in hydrogen dispenser design and installation.
[75] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32014L0094
The project should produce:
(i) A compilation of permitting requirements and best practices for risk assessment methodologies currently used for HRS across EU and a list of PNR gaps identified in previous relevant projects;
(ii) Experimental and theoretical data supporting the knowledge gaps associated to risk assessment for hydrogen dispensers in a multi-fuel environment, reported publicly in manner that supports regulatory compliance and regulatory development;
(iii) Best practice guidance on what constitutes safe designs for hydrogen refuelling stations in multi-fuel contexts, based on scientifically derived, clear, consensus driven guidance, that can be published for instance through CEN/CENELEC [79], or other routes as appropriate, backed up by the results of the experimental and theoretical research performed within the project;
(iv) A network of public authorities which has contributed to all stages of implementation of the project and which serve as the target group for the results experimental and analytical data.
The results of the project should enable public authorities across EU to develop rules based on scientific evidence and common, agreed assumptions for hazardous area classification for hydrogen dispensers. It will vastly simplify the process of designing and permitting standardised hydrogen dispensers which will lead to greater degree of harmonisation of requirements for the permitting of hydrogen dispensing alongside other fuels, thus (i) reducing cost and (ii) ensuring that hydrogen dispensing can be co-located with other fuels safely.
The inclusion and involvement of a network of national authorities is essential for ensuring take-up of results and maximising the impact of the project.
The elimination of legal and regulatory barriers will reduce costs (financial, human resources and actual time) for economic operators and public authorities and speed up the large-scale commercial deployment of key hydrogen applications in numbers that will allow them to have a meaningful contribution to the European Union’s energy, environmental and climate policy goals.
[79] https://www.cencenelec.eu/Pages/default.aspx
The conditions related to this topic are provided in the chapter 3.3 of the FCH2 JU 2020 Annual Work Plan and in the General Annexes to the Horizon 2020 Work Programme 2018– 2020 which apply mutatis mutandis.