Final Report Summary - HYRESPONSE (European Hydrogen Emergency Response training programme for First Responders)
Executive Summary:
HyResponse is a project that aims to support the successful implementation of fuel cell and hydrogen (FCH) technologies by providing technically accurate safety and emergency response information to First Responders and site operators, who must know how to deal in a professional manner with potential incidents or accidents involving FCH systems and infrastructure. Their understanding and knowledge can also facilitate local approval of hydrogen projects.
Currently in Europe, hydrogen safety training for emergency response personnel is absent. There is a need for a comprehensive standardized hydrogen safety training program for emergency response personnel, including those who are involved in the authorization and incidents response. To address this issue the HyResponse project targets to create a European Hydrogen Safety Training Platform (EHSTP). This training platform will develop a tool box for European First Responders, which would help them to assess status and to make decisions not only for the implementation of a new hydrogen project but also on the emergency response level, in case of incident/accident occurring on a site. The existing fire-fighter pedagogic training approach is integrated to train First Responders on all safety aspects in dealing with not only transport but also with stationary FCH applications, i.e. passenger vehicles, buses, forklifts, hydrogen refuelling station, materials handling, decentralised hydrogen production, hydrogen storage and distribution systems, back-up power generation, stationary fuel cells for combined production of heat and power (CHP). The training is threefold: educational training including hydrogen hazards and risks from hydrogen applications, operational-level training on mock-up real scale transport and hydrogen stationary installations, and innovative virtual training exercises, reproducing the entire accident scenarios, thereby testing the whole chain of command and communication between all members of the First Responders team.
In 2016, three training sessions, involving nearly 71 trainees, 21 observers and about 15 trainers from all over Europe but also from the USA, Japan and Tawan, have made it possible to validate the entire pedagogic range, but also to provoke numerous exchanges and feedback.
A website is created to support the wide dissemination of knowledge into the First Responders community: www.hyresponse.eu. The website provides public access to all public deliverables, the teaching materials developed during the project, an online interactive virtual training, the final version of the European Emergency Response Guide and the links to European First Responders community, to hydrogen and fuel cells related information.
This threefold package including educational, operational, and virtual components created within the project is free for use by the interested stakeholders. The details to recreate the EHSTP can be provided through the project website or by other means of another training platform to be created in another site in Europe, e.g. using language different from the english project language.
Also dissemination has been operated, with the organization in France in the city of Aix-en-Provence and by the consortium of two international symposia dealing with this issue (2014 and 2016). They have also participated in a dozen international symposiums to promote the HyResponse program and have written publications in various journals.
Project Context and Objectives:
The first educational program dedicated to hydrogen safety for First Responders (FR) has been developed in USA under DoE funding. This web-based awareness-level course has since been reinforced by operations-level training utilizing fuel cell vehicle and plan to enhance its content to reflect current larger early-market application for stationary power, portable power, auxiliary power units, and forklifts2.
There are no similar activities in Europe at the moment. A comprehensive standardized hydrogen safety training program for emergency response personnel is needed on a European scale addressing key personnel involved in authorization and incident response.
The overall objective of HyResponse project is to support the successful implementation of hydrogen and fuel cell demonstration projects and market transformation by providing educational and practical hydrogen safety training to First Responders including fire, law enforcement, and emergency medical personnel) and site operators, who must know how to respond to potential incidents. Their understanding can also facilitate local approval of hydrogen projects.
For this, the expected outcomes and principal objectives are to:
- Develop and disseminate first responder hydrogen safety educational materials in Europe;
- Build a European Hydrogen Training Platform with mockup real scale transport and hydrogen stationary installations on which will be realized full scale operational exercises;
- Create a virtual reality platform reproducing entire accident scenarios and thereby testing the whole chain of command and communication between all members of the First Responders team;
- Train European First Responders during three training sessions of one week each with academic lectures, feedback and rules, code and standard (RCS) aspects, using operational platform and also virtual reality with numeric systems;
- Disseminate knowledge into the First Responders community throughout a website with free access to the teaching materials and an online interactive virtual training and links
- to European First Responders community to hydrogen and fuel cells related information;
- Write a final version of the European Emergency Response Guide
The educational training encompasses three main sections: the basics of hydrogen safety; regulations, codes and standards (RCS); the intervention strategies and tactics relevant to First Responders. The educational training in basics of hydrogen safety will provide First Responders with a knowledge and understanding of the hydrogen specificities as a new energy carrier during its production, transportation, delivery and use. This awareness and new professional skills gained by First Responders during HyResponse training will implement safe emergency response operations in particular and will contribute to FCH permitting process in general. First Responders will also learn the key safety requirements defined in the European and international RCS for transport and stationary hydrogen applications. Pedagogic explanations on the intervention strategies and tactics will be given to First Responders.
To develop, test, and get a feedback on the educational, practical and virtual training, it is planned to organize three pilot sessions for European First Responders in a face to face mode, each of one week duration. In the framework of the HyResponse, it is planned to train at least 50 fire-fighters involved in hydrogen projects in Europe. Emergency response strategies identified to tackle accidental situations will be tested on the operational and virtual platforms and be finalized in an Emergency Response Guide dedicated to First Responders. When necessary, knowledge gaps on hydrogen safety requiring further research will be addressed and recommendations will be formulated.
In addition to the consortium partnership, an Advisory and Consultative Panel (ACP) will be established at the start of the project. The aim is to engage as many European stakeholders as possible to underpin the project outputs quality, its visibility, and facilitate dissemination process. For example, OEMS will advise on parameters of unscheduled leaks from their products (piping diameters, time of shut-down valves, etc.), and details of realistic accident scenarios. Fire brigades will be consulted on their experience with controlling accidents with CNG and LPG vehicles, relevant strategies and tactics.
Project Results:
The final results of the HyResponse project, funded by the FCH-JU, are very positive. Despite an extension of 4 months over the initial three-year duration of the project, all the actions formulated in the description of work (DoW) were fully and positively carried out without exception. The good financial management of the budget even made it possible to train a third of trainees in addition, and even to host observers, not foreseen at the outset. This contributed to fruitful exchanges and feedback to develop concerted, assessed and validated hydrogen risk response strategies.
As part of the implementation of the HyResponse program, a European training center for risk and safety of hydrogen now exists in France within the French academy for fire, rescue and civil protection officers (ENSOSP). This center proposes a first training instructional kit based on:
- Academic and theoretical lectures on basics of hydrogen safety, on RCS and on intervention strategies and tactics: More than 446 course slides and 329 pages of written notes, divided into 10 items compose this theoretical aspect;
- Actual practices through a physical platform with training simulators: explosion platforms, gas jets differentiated, entangling hydrogen tubes (“mikados”), hydrogen refueling station, energy and distribution platform, storage of different gases, new energy vehicles exhibition;
- The ability to perform exercises intervention framework, simulated in a virtual reality.
In summary of the various deliverables already made and available to the FCH-JU and also detailed in this present report, we can discuss the major advances and following results:
- As a first step, the project aims to put together materials reflecting the knowledge on the potentially hazardous phenomena that may take place during accidents with FCH systems.
The targeted hydrogen applications include passenger vehicles, busses, forklifts, hydrogen vehicle refuelling, materials handling, decentralised hydrogen production, hydrogen storage (with or without coupling to renewable energy sources) and distribution systems, backup power generation, stationary fuel cells for combined production of heat and power (CHP).
In the technical and juridical frameworks related to safety studies, the elaboration of major hazard scenarios allows identification of the main accident scenarios that can occur on a FCH installation. State-of-the-art modelling tools will be applied to simulate accident dynamics and consequences. Organizational and technical measures to prevent and/or mitigate the consequences will be identified.
Based on the identification of typical scenarios and their potential consequences, First Responders and system developers will be able to work on emergency response plan and take appropriate decisions to tackle the developing dangerous situations. The strategy will be based on the severity of the consequences for each particular scenario and the possible means of intervention and prevention depending on the FCH system involved.
The identified intervention strategy and tactic will be then tested using the operational and virtual platforms. The feedback from these exercises tools will help to assess the efficiencies of the emergency plan and possible improvement will be identified before final validation.
- The definition of different academic activities, which have been provided during the training week. More than 446 course slides and 329 pages of written notes, divided into 9 items compose this theoretical aspect;
The International Curriculum contains but not limited to the following information: aim and objectives of the educational training, target audience and their prerequisites necessary for the understanding of the material, table of content on basics of hydrogen safety, on regulations, codes and standards, and on the intervention strategy and tactic, envisaged content of chapters and sections, references and sources, expected duration of delivery of each section during the pilot sessions, etc.
After each session the teaching materials were updated based on the trainees’ feedback as well as comments and suggestions of all partners. The materials include lecture notes and presentation slides in 9 topic areas:
• Introduction to hydrogen and FC applications
• Hydrogen properties relevant to safety
• Safety of hydrogen storage
• Harm criteria for people and environment, damage criteria for structures and equipment
• Unignited hydrogen releases, their prevention and mitigation
• Sources of hydrogen ignition and prevention measures
• Hydrogen fires
• Dealing with hydrogen explosions
• Hazards of hydrogen use indoors.
Small demonstrations of hydrogen releases and jet fires conducted on the operational training facility have been presented to trainees to illustrate the course and experience specificities of hydrogen: odourless, colourless, invisible flame, etc.
The final form of the teaching materials was completed and made available through the HyResponse website (http://www.hyresponse.eu/training-mat-1.php)
The aim of the task “Regulations, codes and standards requirements to FCH systems relevant to First Responders, intervention strategies and tactic” is to analyse the hydrogen safety approaches and requirements defined in RCS related to FCH systems, including those needed for their approval, and relevant to First Responders (assessment of accident scheme, decision making, intervention, etc.).
When available and relevant, lessons learnt from existing resources (i.e. HyFACTS training material) could be used to deliver some chapters on Regulations, Codes and Standards.
Training materials presents the safety requirements of RCS for FCH systems, in order to provide First Responders with a clear picture of mitigation technologies and safety measures that are in place, when reaching the scene of an incident/accident: safety distances, detection systems, vent stacks, emergency shutdown devices, etc.
The final form of RCS teaching materials (slides) is uploaded to the public area of HyResponse website http://hyresponse.eu/training-mat-2.php. The structure of the developed lecture is as follows:
• Regulations, Codes and Standards (RCS)
o Introduction
o Short RCS list of fuel cell and hydrogen (FCH) standards
• Hydrogen production, storage, transportation and distribution
• FCH applications - some examples
o Hydrogen refueling stations (HRS)
o Stationary fuel cell power systems
o Fuel cell electric vehicles
• Prescriptive and performance-based approach to hydrogen safety
o Hydrogen properties (ISO/TR 15916:2015)
o Primary hazards (ISO/IEC Guide 51:2014)
o Fire safety engineering principles for buildings (BS 7974:2001)
As per call requirement, the training also serve First Responders assessing the compliance with RCS, facilitating the permitting process of FCH systems or technologies. The training on RCS is disseminated into the teaching material used in face-to-face mode and it will also be prepared in a format suitable for integration into the online training course on the HyResponse website.
- Also teaching materials (case studies) have been developed to train First Responders, prior to the operational and virtual trainings, with FCH systems, their safety features, their potential hazards, the related typical risk scenarios and the intervention strategy and tactic to tackle developing disaster. Teaching materials form the fundamental knowledge basis on which First Responders have been leant on to prepare operational and virtual training exercises.
The teaching material contains:
• Description of typical FCH systems, their safety concept and safety features and customized using VR tool for pedagogic purposes;
• Description of accident scenario(s) related to each selected FCH will be used to identify and select sequence of events during an accident with high consequences, and highest probability to occur. e.g. First Responders operations to extricate people from damaged hydrogen vehicle during traffic accident, etc.;
• Modelling of major hazard scenarios using state-of-the-art tools such as CFD tools to help First Responders to visualize hydrogen behaviour and consequences;
• Pedagogic explanation on the response and intervention strategy and tactic identified for each accident scenario within the case study. VR tool will be used to generate animation films in order to explain accident scenarios and show adequate response strategies.
The teaching materials is available in its final version to all stakeholders in pdf document support and have been also be prepared in the format suitable to the online training course on the HyResponse website with for example 3D interactive FCH systems, animation films explaining identified scenarios and adequate response strategies.
- A pilot operational hydrogen training facilities for the European Hydrogen Safety Training Platform (EHSTP) has been built to train First Responders, test and validate emergency response procedures relevant to FCH systems and infrastructures accident scenarios.
The operational hydrogen training facility allows First Responders to visualize hydrogen applications, put into practice what they have learnt during class, simulate interventions, test and implement operational response strategies identified for selected scenarios. The operational hydrogen training facility also allows First Responders to discover and observe phenomena related to the behaviour of hydrogen in a real incident and / or accident scene. The challenge is to create a dynamic accidental environment as real as possible while guarantying safety of First Responders.
Before the building, studies and plans have been produced by an architect and a building permit was deposited at the commune of Aix-en-Provence, home of the residence of the ENSOSP. It was approved on September 24th, 2015. The entire construction, into a 2500m² area field, was supervised by the AREVA partner who was able to carry out the delivery receipt in February 2016;
The definition and the building of a physical platform allowing the trainees to train on different scale 1 simulators:
- Explosion platforms,
- Gas jets differentiated,
- Entangling hydrogen tubes (“mikados”),
- Hydrogen refuelling station,
- Energy and distribution platform,
- Storage of different gases,
- New energy vehicles exhibition.
The goal of these demonstrations is to train First Responders to apprehend intervention on a hydrogen facility and identify warning signs:
• As hydrogen is colourless and odourless, non-reacting leaks can be identified by the sound of high-pressure gas escaping,
• Hydrogen burns with a pale blue flame that is nearly invisible in daylight and produces no smoke. A hydrogen fire has been performed and trainees have been be able to visualize the flame by the use of thermal imaging or adjunction of particle into the fire,
These small demonstrations have been recorded to be included as videos into the online training course available on the project dedicated website.
The pedagogic approach consists of dividing the operational exercises into three levels i.e. “Discovery level”, “Advanced level”, and “Expert level” in order to reflect the increase of the trainee’s skill requirements. For each level, several scenarios have been described for all the stationary and transport applications.
An assessment sheet has been created for the instructors to check and validate the achievement of trainee’s skills and knowledge during the exercises.
Hereby, a plan of the operational hydrogen training facilities for the European Hydrogen Safety Training Platform (EHSTP)
- The definition of the exercise scenarios and software using virtual reality.
Virtual Reality (VR) is an artificial environment that is created with software and presented to the user in such a way that the user suspends belief and accepts it as a real environment. On a computer, virtual reality is primarily experienced through two of the five senses: sight and sound. The major interest to use VR comes from the possibility to recreate totally different situations from one to another, and this, without presenting any risk for First Responders.
CRISE has developed a 3D VR Serious Game software that enables life sized training for crisis preparedness, commandment, and emergency help, in ideal pedagogical environment, in safe conditions and at low cost.
In France, fire-fighters use virtual reality to train their teams in virtual environments to face specific risks such as radiological, nuclear or chemical in an interactive use and in real time for different sites such as classified SEVESO (chemical risk), port, airports... International training sessions have been held between French, US and Australian fire fighters for HRO and doctrine comparison studies, international training sessions are regularly held for practicing international cooperation, typically like wildfires going to/from France to Spain or Italy. On these aspects, the VR simulator and the experience of CRISE, have been valuable to fulfil the objective of the project to train simultaneously first-responders from different European countries.
The VR training exercises have been performed on the hydrogen VR training platform. 3D representations of each FCH system and infrastructures including passenger vehicles, buses, forklift, refuelling station, decentralised hydrogen production, storage and distribution systems, backup power generation, stationary fuel cells for combined production of heat and power (CHP) have been especially created. All the modelled FCH systems and infrastructures have been integrated within the new dedicated virtual department of ENSOSP (EVE urban, port and industrial site). Specific computers and numeric systems have been bought on the project and special room arrangements have been organized for this operation.
Virtual training exercises have been elaborated and are aim at completing the multi-level operational training exercises. For each particular exercise, the whole scenarios are described in detailed flowcharts taking into account the development of a hydrogen accident/incident, its consequences, and how it will evolve depending on the actions of the First Responders during the virtual training.
An assessment sheet has been created for the instructors to check and validate the achievement of trainee’s skills and knowledge during the exercises.
A dual approach is proposed. On the one hand, simple scenarios where every trainee can view different vehicle types (car, bus) with specific effects following an incident hydrogen (leak, fire, explosion) and also two complex scenarios where all players together will be able to train in response to several under unified command as a serious game: a multiple-vehicles accident on a highway with a hydrogen vehicle and an incident involving a trailer carrying liquefied hydrogen;
A total of 148 exercises have been led by the trainees, organised as 20 international teams, 10 drills have been practiced by the same trainees, organised in 18 national teams. During the first workshop 2 exercises have been led as shared tabletops, involving all participants.
- The realization of the three experimental training sessions
The schedule of the training sessions was agreed by the members of the consortium at the Steering group number 4 in University of Ulster, Belfast, in June 2015 and is given in this below table 1.
Date Location and venue
1st pilot training session 14th- ou 18th of March 2016 Aix-en-Provence, France, ENSOSP site
2nd pilot training session 9th-13th of May 2016 Aix-en-Provence, France, ENSOSP site
3rd pilot training session 6 th-10th of June 2016 Aix-en-Provence, France, ENSOSP site
The announcement regarding the HyResponse pilot training sessions was made available on the homepage of the project http://www.hyresponse.eu/ and specific flyers of promotional campaign for these courses has been sent at all the database of European officers known.
ENSOSP, leader of this WP has for each session managed all logistics registration and management of trainees, trainers and observers.
In total, we received:
- 71 trainees from 15 countries (Germany, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Spain, United States, France, Italy, Norway, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, United Kingdom, Sweden, Czech Republic) ;
- 21 observers from 10 countries (Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, France, Netherlands, Portugal, United States, Japan, Taïwan)
It’s important to notice that into initial Description of work (DoW), the consortium only to train 50 trainees from Europa. Also, observers was not mentioned. But at constant cost, without exceeding the initial budget, and with the authorization of the FCH-JU project manager, we were able to train more trainees, including from outside Europe and also host observers.
In parallel, and on average, about more 15 trainers have been necessary to do the different pedagogic sequences:
- 7 of them were typical partners, include into all life of the development of the project ;
- 8 of them were French firemen officers, especially dedicated to these three training sessions to operate either the physical platform either the virtual one.
The ENSOSP has registered each of these profiles, managed their accommodation in the school and their restoration.
Registrations for trainees, observers and trainers were composed of:
- A registration form with civil information and logistic desires; Administrative manager from ENSOSP booked the air plane or train travels and sent electronic tickets. Also, he booked accommodation, hotel rooms into school or all meals during each session.
- An agreement between the ENSOSP and the trainee's employers' organization, which specified the rights and obligations of each person in terms of modalities of reception, safety and responsibility during the training session;
- A fire gear size form because it’s ENSOSP which that provided all fire-protection clothing for trainees
The training programme aimed to train firefighters from all across Europe and provide the possibility for other interested stakeholders to learn more about the training programme and to participate as observers.
The trainees and observer could arrive on the Sunday before the training week and leave during the weekend following the training week.
As the programme was threefold, it was divided in 3 types of sequences:
• Educational training, including the state-of-the-art knowledge in hydrogen safety,
• Operational training on mock-up real scale hydrogen and fuel cell installations,
• Innovative virtual reality training reproducing in detail an entire accident scenario, including the influence of first responder's intervention.
Figure 1Pilot session program (Monday-tuesday)
Figure 2 Pilot session program (Wednesday-Friday)
Lecture
Strategies and intervention
Operational platform
Virtual reality training
An educational training briefcase has been delivered to each trainee at the end of the session and may be revised after each session based on lessons learnt, exchanges of feedback and best practices. It is envisaged that educational materials, delivered during these pan-European training sessions, can be used to develop and deliver training sessions at local level with use of language different from English, although the consortium will not be responsible for any translations.
Members of the consortium have been taken part in the training as organizers and instructors to deliver the educational content during the class, the operational exercises and virtual reality training sessions.
The feed-back from trainees on technical and organisational aspects of the training sessions have been gathered and analysed and used to improve the content, format and delivery channels.
- On the basis of these feedbacks during the experimental training sessions, but also from the state of the art on knowledge, on operational feedbacks and on existing regulations, a European emergency response guide was entirely written by ENSOSP.
Into its more than 150 pages, it corresponds to a collection of good practices. The HyResponse project provides emergency response strategies and tactics for Fuel Cell Hydrogen (FCH) vehicles and applications. The strategies and tactics presented in this document are for the purpose of sharing information about responding to incidents/accidents involving FCH cars, buses and applications. This document is made available on an “as is” basis for “informational purposes” only.
It describes the relevant actions to perform by First Responders and the ones to avoid, in order to ensure the protection of life, property and the environment, and to prevent any dangerous escalation in the development of the accident/incident. The guide is illustrated with figures developed during the project (pictures of numerical simulations, graphical representations, 3D representations of HFC systems, etc.).
- Many dissemination actions and recovery was also provided to present the HyResponse program: presentations at international conferences (International conference on hydrogen safety training in Yokohama (Japan), CTIF 2015 (Roma), Technical days emergency response vehicles on journeys 2016 (France), WHEC 2016 (Spain),) and especially the organization on the ENSOSP premises of the second international workshop on Hydrogen Safety training for First Responders in September 2016, having gathered about 35 participants from 10 different countries. Also, the physical training platform has been officially inaugurated by French authority in June 2016.
The following part and table present with more details this important work of the project.
In this same spectrum of recognition and scope of the HyResponse project, the physical training platform was officially inaugurated by the French Director General of Civil Security and Crisis Management and the Prefect of South Defense and Security zone, on behalf of the French Minister of the Interior on June 23, 2016. In front of these French officials, an explanation and a demonstration of its application was realized by the ENSOSP scientific Director and his operative team.
- To allow effective communications of project results and training material to First Responders throughout the EU, a website (www.hyresponse.eu) dedicated to educational and training programmes on hydrogen safety for First Responders has been developed during the project.
The public area includes diverse information available to visitors, some of them are:
• Home tab has five menu items:
o About HyResponse. This sub-section describes the scope of the project; the overall strategy of the work plan and the graphical representation of the main components of the project
o Participants. This sub-section lists and provides the details of the organisations involved in the HyResponse project
o AC panel. This section shows the details of the members of Advisory and Consultative Panel (ACP)
o Deliverables. This section lists the deliverables accessible to the public. The visitors are able to download final versions of public deliverables
o Milestones. This section lists the milestones within the project.
• Educational training tab has four menu items:
o International Curriculum. International Curriculum on hydrogen safety training for first responders
o Hydrogen safety basics for first responders.
o RCS for first responders. The education materials for first responders on relevant codes and standards
o Case studies
• Operational training tab contains the materials demonstrating operational platform and illustrating practical operational training exercises carried out by the pilot session trainees.
• Virtual Reality (VR) training tab. The virtual reality training in the project was developed and delivered by CRIS partner.
• Emergency Response Guide tab contains public deliverable D6.3 “European Emergency Response Guide”
• Contacts tab. This section enables website users to contact either the Project Coordinator or the Website Administrator via email.
Virtual Reality tools as a support for the online training have been integrated. In particular, 3D representations of each hydrogen application have been customized to allow online operational functionalities interaction. For awareness and understanding enforcement, the models have been modified in order to exhibit more ‘How does it work’ or ‘Why is it dangerous’, or ‘What are the safe operation conditions’, etc. by providing specific 3D highlights, animations or any other visualisation technique. Animation films have been also produced from the scenarios showing adequate response strategies.
Potential Impact:
Potential impact
The initial training period of five days expects to be scalable on both the training time and also on the content taught. If at first, it is intended for first responders’, who are mainly firefighters and personnel responsible for industrial safety, it can be upgraded in interesting modules instead of operational commanders or complex crises managers. Modules for instructors (train the trainer) can also be anticipated in the future.
The training system is thought to be sustainable beyond the completion of the project. Partners as well as the international community could benefit of it.
Similarly experimental formations in the project, beyond the technical experience and educational device, following the experience feedback made, have produced a methodological European emergency response guide, really collection of good practices, tactic and strategic responses against hydrogen risk. This guide is releasable to the public throughout the community.
Finally, the environmental aspects related to the use of hydrogen as a new energy carrier is preferred. The choice to implement this training center on the site of the ENSOSP academy is also motivated by its proximity to the Euro-Mediterranean Europole of Arbois, real professional technology park dedicated to the environment that welcomes its members companies, 4 clusters, research centers and educational institutions, etc.
The existence of a website for the project HyResponse: www.hyresponse.eu public access also aims to promote cultural integration of this risk to the population: the measure but will make his non-polluting environmental impacts, real energy alternative in the future.
Another impact or strong point of this project is the creation of a network of identified actors on the European scene, but more broadly. Interesting contacts with the United States of America but also with Japan, Taiwan have been linked, In addition to the sharing with the European Community.
Dissemination activities
The filled template A2 “list of dissemination activities” below will complete this rapid summarize:
• A project identity has been created (logo, poster and PPT template). The materials have been updated (poster and flyers) and are available on Hyresponse website.
• The final (HyResponse) Workshop on Hydrogen Safety Training for First Responders has been organised on the 15th of September 2016 at French Academy for Fire, Rescue and Civil Protection Officers (ENSOSP) in Aix-en-Provence, France. The feedback of the workshop has been provided. It complete the first one, organized on the 03rd and 4th of September 2014 with more than 70 European and International particpants.
• Advisory Panel of First Responders meetings has been organised.
• 2 press release have been published
• European Hydrogen Association booth established in HANNOVER MESSE 2015 and 2016 and it promoted the benefits of HyResponse safety training to First Responders, at both EU and international levels.
• Regular articles and updates in newsletter of FAST, EHA and its 24 national associations and ENSOSP newsletters.
• The HyResponse project has been introduced in 13 different EU events and will be presented after the end of the project to present the final results during the World Energy Solutions in Germany, 10 – 12 October 2016.
• International collaboration and effective communication took place with:
o International Association of Fire and Rescue Services (CTIF): Commission “Extrication and New Technologie”
o Automotive car manufacturer
▪ Toyota
o US DOE and PNNL
o HySUT (Japan)
o Taiwan
• European collaboration and effective communication took place with:
o European Fire Services from (Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom)
List of Websites:
www.hyresponse.eu
email contact and info : specialized.training@ensosp.fr
HyResponse is a project that aims to support the successful implementation of fuel cell and hydrogen (FCH) technologies by providing technically accurate safety and emergency response information to First Responders and site operators, who must know how to deal in a professional manner with potential incidents or accidents involving FCH systems and infrastructure. Their understanding and knowledge can also facilitate local approval of hydrogen projects.
Currently in Europe, hydrogen safety training for emergency response personnel is absent. There is a need for a comprehensive standardized hydrogen safety training program for emergency response personnel, including those who are involved in the authorization and incidents response. To address this issue the HyResponse project targets to create a European Hydrogen Safety Training Platform (EHSTP). This training platform will develop a tool box for European First Responders, which would help them to assess status and to make decisions not only for the implementation of a new hydrogen project but also on the emergency response level, in case of incident/accident occurring on a site. The existing fire-fighter pedagogic training approach is integrated to train First Responders on all safety aspects in dealing with not only transport but also with stationary FCH applications, i.e. passenger vehicles, buses, forklifts, hydrogen refuelling station, materials handling, decentralised hydrogen production, hydrogen storage and distribution systems, back-up power generation, stationary fuel cells for combined production of heat and power (CHP). The training is threefold: educational training including hydrogen hazards and risks from hydrogen applications, operational-level training on mock-up real scale transport and hydrogen stationary installations, and innovative virtual training exercises, reproducing the entire accident scenarios, thereby testing the whole chain of command and communication between all members of the First Responders team.
In 2016, three training sessions, involving nearly 71 trainees, 21 observers and about 15 trainers from all over Europe but also from the USA, Japan and Tawan, have made it possible to validate the entire pedagogic range, but also to provoke numerous exchanges and feedback.
A website is created to support the wide dissemination of knowledge into the First Responders community: www.hyresponse.eu. The website provides public access to all public deliverables, the teaching materials developed during the project, an online interactive virtual training, the final version of the European Emergency Response Guide and the links to European First Responders community, to hydrogen and fuel cells related information.
This threefold package including educational, operational, and virtual components created within the project is free for use by the interested stakeholders. The details to recreate the EHSTP can be provided through the project website or by other means of another training platform to be created in another site in Europe, e.g. using language different from the english project language.
Also dissemination has been operated, with the organization in France in the city of Aix-en-Provence and by the consortium of two international symposia dealing with this issue (2014 and 2016). They have also participated in a dozen international symposiums to promote the HyResponse program and have written publications in various journals.
Project Context and Objectives:
The first educational program dedicated to hydrogen safety for First Responders (FR) has been developed in USA under DoE funding. This web-based awareness-level course has since been reinforced by operations-level training utilizing fuel cell vehicle and plan to enhance its content to reflect current larger early-market application for stationary power, portable power, auxiliary power units, and forklifts2.
There are no similar activities in Europe at the moment. A comprehensive standardized hydrogen safety training program for emergency response personnel is needed on a European scale addressing key personnel involved in authorization and incident response.
The overall objective of HyResponse project is to support the successful implementation of hydrogen and fuel cell demonstration projects and market transformation by providing educational and practical hydrogen safety training to First Responders including fire, law enforcement, and emergency medical personnel) and site operators, who must know how to respond to potential incidents. Their understanding can also facilitate local approval of hydrogen projects.
For this, the expected outcomes and principal objectives are to:
- Develop and disseminate first responder hydrogen safety educational materials in Europe;
- Build a European Hydrogen Training Platform with mockup real scale transport and hydrogen stationary installations on which will be realized full scale operational exercises;
- Create a virtual reality platform reproducing entire accident scenarios and thereby testing the whole chain of command and communication between all members of the First Responders team;
- Train European First Responders during three training sessions of one week each with academic lectures, feedback and rules, code and standard (RCS) aspects, using operational platform and also virtual reality with numeric systems;
- Disseminate knowledge into the First Responders community throughout a website with free access to the teaching materials and an online interactive virtual training and links
- to European First Responders community to hydrogen and fuel cells related information;
- Write a final version of the European Emergency Response Guide
The educational training encompasses three main sections: the basics of hydrogen safety; regulations, codes and standards (RCS); the intervention strategies and tactics relevant to First Responders. The educational training in basics of hydrogen safety will provide First Responders with a knowledge and understanding of the hydrogen specificities as a new energy carrier during its production, transportation, delivery and use. This awareness and new professional skills gained by First Responders during HyResponse training will implement safe emergency response operations in particular and will contribute to FCH permitting process in general. First Responders will also learn the key safety requirements defined in the European and international RCS for transport and stationary hydrogen applications. Pedagogic explanations on the intervention strategies and tactics will be given to First Responders.
To develop, test, and get a feedback on the educational, practical and virtual training, it is planned to organize three pilot sessions for European First Responders in a face to face mode, each of one week duration. In the framework of the HyResponse, it is planned to train at least 50 fire-fighters involved in hydrogen projects in Europe. Emergency response strategies identified to tackle accidental situations will be tested on the operational and virtual platforms and be finalized in an Emergency Response Guide dedicated to First Responders. When necessary, knowledge gaps on hydrogen safety requiring further research will be addressed and recommendations will be formulated.
In addition to the consortium partnership, an Advisory and Consultative Panel (ACP) will be established at the start of the project. The aim is to engage as many European stakeholders as possible to underpin the project outputs quality, its visibility, and facilitate dissemination process. For example, OEMS will advise on parameters of unscheduled leaks from their products (piping diameters, time of shut-down valves, etc.), and details of realistic accident scenarios. Fire brigades will be consulted on their experience with controlling accidents with CNG and LPG vehicles, relevant strategies and tactics.
Project Results:
The final results of the HyResponse project, funded by the FCH-JU, are very positive. Despite an extension of 4 months over the initial three-year duration of the project, all the actions formulated in the description of work (DoW) were fully and positively carried out without exception. The good financial management of the budget even made it possible to train a third of trainees in addition, and even to host observers, not foreseen at the outset. This contributed to fruitful exchanges and feedback to develop concerted, assessed and validated hydrogen risk response strategies.
As part of the implementation of the HyResponse program, a European training center for risk and safety of hydrogen now exists in France within the French academy for fire, rescue and civil protection officers (ENSOSP). This center proposes a first training instructional kit based on:
- Academic and theoretical lectures on basics of hydrogen safety, on RCS and on intervention strategies and tactics: More than 446 course slides and 329 pages of written notes, divided into 10 items compose this theoretical aspect;
- Actual practices through a physical platform with training simulators: explosion platforms, gas jets differentiated, entangling hydrogen tubes (“mikados”), hydrogen refueling station, energy and distribution platform, storage of different gases, new energy vehicles exhibition;
- The ability to perform exercises intervention framework, simulated in a virtual reality.
In summary of the various deliverables already made and available to the FCH-JU and also detailed in this present report, we can discuss the major advances and following results:
- As a first step, the project aims to put together materials reflecting the knowledge on the potentially hazardous phenomena that may take place during accidents with FCH systems.
The targeted hydrogen applications include passenger vehicles, busses, forklifts, hydrogen vehicle refuelling, materials handling, decentralised hydrogen production, hydrogen storage (with or without coupling to renewable energy sources) and distribution systems, backup power generation, stationary fuel cells for combined production of heat and power (CHP).
In the technical and juridical frameworks related to safety studies, the elaboration of major hazard scenarios allows identification of the main accident scenarios that can occur on a FCH installation. State-of-the-art modelling tools will be applied to simulate accident dynamics and consequences. Organizational and technical measures to prevent and/or mitigate the consequences will be identified.
Based on the identification of typical scenarios and their potential consequences, First Responders and system developers will be able to work on emergency response plan and take appropriate decisions to tackle the developing dangerous situations. The strategy will be based on the severity of the consequences for each particular scenario and the possible means of intervention and prevention depending on the FCH system involved.
The identified intervention strategy and tactic will be then tested using the operational and virtual platforms. The feedback from these exercises tools will help to assess the efficiencies of the emergency plan and possible improvement will be identified before final validation.
- The definition of different academic activities, which have been provided during the training week. More than 446 course slides and 329 pages of written notes, divided into 9 items compose this theoretical aspect;
The International Curriculum contains but not limited to the following information: aim and objectives of the educational training, target audience and their prerequisites necessary for the understanding of the material, table of content on basics of hydrogen safety, on regulations, codes and standards, and on the intervention strategy and tactic, envisaged content of chapters and sections, references and sources, expected duration of delivery of each section during the pilot sessions, etc.
After each session the teaching materials were updated based on the trainees’ feedback as well as comments and suggestions of all partners. The materials include lecture notes and presentation slides in 9 topic areas:
• Introduction to hydrogen and FC applications
• Hydrogen properties relevant to safety
• Safety of hydrogen storage
• Harm criteria for people and environment, damage criteria for structures and equipment
• Unignited hydrogen releases, their prevention and mitigation
• Sources of hydrogen ignition and prevention measures
• Hydrogen fires
• Dealing with hydrogen explosions
• Hazards of hydrogen use indoors.
Small demonstrations of hydrogen releases and jet fires conducted on the operational training facility have been presented to trainees to illustrate the course and experience specificities of hydrogen: odourless, colourless, invisible flame, etc.
The final form of the teaching materials was completed and made available through the HyResponse website (http://www.hyresponse.eu/training-mat-1.php)
The aim of the task “Regulations, codes and standards requirements to FCH systems relevant to First Responders, intervention strategies and tactic” is to analyse the hydrogen safety approaches and requirements defined in RCS related to FCH systems, including those needed for their approval, and relevant to First Responders (assessment of accident scheme, decision making, intervention, etc.).
When available and relevant, lessons learnt from existing resources (i.e. HyFACTS training material) could be used to deliver some chapters on Regulations, Codes and Standards.
Training materials presents the safety requirements of RCS for FCH systems, in order to provide First Responders with a clear picture of mitigation technologies and safety measures that are in place, when reaching the scene of an incident/accident: safety distances, detection systems, vent stacks, emergency shutdown devices, etc.
The final form of RCS teaching materials (slides) is uploaded to the public area of HyResponse website http://hyresponse.eu/training-mat-2.php. The structure of the developed lecture is as follows:
• Regulations, Codes and Standards (RCS)
o Introduction
o Short RCS list of fuel cell and hydrogen (FCH) standards
• Hydrogen production, storage, transportation and distribution
• FCH applications - some examples
o Hydrogen refueling stations (HRS)
o Stationary fuel cell power systems
o Fuel cell electric vehicles
• Prescriptive and performance-based approach to hydrogen safety
o Hydrogen properties (ISO/TR 15916:2015)
o Primary hazards (ISO/IEC Guide 51:2014)
o Fire safety engineering principles for buildings (BS 7974:2001)
As per call requirement, the training also serve First Responders assessing the compliance with RCS, facilitating the permitting process of FCH systems or technologies. The training on RCS is disseminated into the teaching material used in face-to-face mode and it will also be prepared in a format suitable for integration into the online training course on the HyResponse website.
- Also teaching materials (case studies) have been developed to train First Responders, prior to the operational and virtual trainings, with FCH systems, their safety features, their potential hazards, the related typical risk scenarios and the intervention strategy and tactic to tackle developing disaster. Teaching materials form the fundamental knowledge basis on which First Responders have been leant on to prepare operational and virtual training exercises.
The teaching material contains:
• Description of typical FCH systems, their safety concept and safety features and customized using VR tool for pedagogic purposes;
• Description of accident scenario(s) related to each selected FCH will be used to identify and select sequence of events during an accident with high consequences, and highest probability to occur. e.g. First Responders operations to extricate people from damaged hydrogen vehicle during traffic accident, etc.;
• Modelling of major hazard scenarios using state-of-the-art tools such as CFD tools to help First Responders to visualize hydrogen behaviour and consequences;
• Pedagogic explanation on the response and intervention strategy and tactic identified for each accident scenario within the case study. VR tool will be used to generate animation films in order to explain accident scenarios and show adequate response strategies.
The teaching materials is available in its final version to all stakeholders in pdf document support and have been also be prepared in the format suitable to the online training course on the HyResponse website with for example 3D interactive FCH systems, animation films explaining identified scenarios and adequate response strategies.
- A pilot operational hydrogen training facilities for the European Hydrogen Safety Training Platform (EHSTP) has been built to train First Responders, test and validate emergency response procedures relevant to FCH systems and infrastructures accident scenarios.
The operational hydrogen training facility allows First Responders to visualize hydrogen applications, put into practice what they have learnt during class, simulate interventions, test and implement operational response strategies identified for selected scenarios. The operational hydrogen training facility also allows First Responders to discover and observe phenomena related to the behaviour of hydrogen in a real incident and / or accident scene. The challenge is to create a dynamic accidental environment as real as possible while guarantying safety of First Responders.
Before the building, studies and plans have been produced by an architect and a building permit was deposited at the commune of Aix-en-Provence, home of the residence of the ENSOSP. It was approved on September 24th, 2015. The entire construction, into a 2500m² area field, was supervised by the AREVA partner who was able to carry out the delivery receipt in February 2016;
The definition and the building of a physical platform allowing the trainees to train on different scale 1 simulators:
- Explosion platforms,
- Gas jets differentiated,
- Entangling hydrogen tubes (“mikados”),
- Hydrogen refuelling station,
- Energy and distribution platform,
- Storage of different gases,
- New energy vehicles exhibition.
The goal of these demonstrations is to train First Responders to apprehend intervention on a hydrogen facility and identify warning signs:
• As hydrogen is colourless and odourless, non-reacting leaks can be identified by the sound of high-pressure gas escaping,
• Hydrogen burns with a pale blue flame that is nearly invisible in daylight and produces no smoke. A hydrogen fire has been performed and trainees have been be able to visualize the flame by the use of thermal imaging or adjunction of particle into the fire,
These small demonstrations have been recorded to be included as videos into the online training course available on the project dedicated website.
The pedagogic approach consists of dividing the operational exercises into three levels i.e. “Discovery level”, “Advanced level”, and “Expert level” in order to reflect the increase of the trainee’s skill requirements. For each level, several scenarios have been described for all the stationary and transport applications.
An assessment sheet has been created for the instructors to check and validate the achievement of trainee’s skills and knowledge during the exercises.
Hereby, a plan of the operational hydrogen training facilities for the European Hydrogen Safety Training Platform (EHSTP)
- The definition of the exercise scenarios and software using virtual reality.
Virtual Reality (VR) is an artificial environment that is created with software and presented to the user in such a way that the user suspends belief and accepts it as a real environment. On a computer, virtual reality is primarily experienced through two of the five senses: sight and sound. The major interest to use VR comes from the possibility to recreate totally different situations from one to another, and this, without presenting any risk for First Responders.
CRISE has developed a 3D VR Serious Game software that enables life sized training for crisis preparedness, commandment, and emergency help, in ideal pedagogical environment, in safe conditions and at low cost.
In France, fire-fighters use virtual reality to train their teams in virtual environments to face specific risks such as radiological, nuclear or chemical in an interactive use and in real time for different sites such as classified SEVESO (chemical risk), port, airports... International training sessions have been held between French, US and Australian fire fighters for HRO and doctrine comparison studies, international training sessions are regularly held for practicing international cooperation, typically like wildfires going to/from France to Spain or Italy. On these aspects, the VR simulator and the experience of CRISE, have been valuable to fulfil the objective of the project to train simultaneously first-responders from different European countries.
The VR training exercises have been performed on the hydrogen VR training platform. 3D representations of each FCH system and infrastructures including passenger vehicles, buses, forklift, refuelling station, decentralised hydrogen production, storage and distribution systems, backup power generation, stationary fuel cells for combined production of heat and power (CHP) have been especially created. All the modelled FCH systems and infrastructures have been integrated within the new dedicated virtual department of ENSOSP (EVE urban, port and industrial site). Specific computers and numeric systems have been bought on the project and special room arrangements have been organized for this operation.
Virtual training exercises have been elaborated and are aim at completing the multi-level operational training exercises. For each particular exercise, the whole scenarios are described in detailed flowcharts taking into account the development of a hydrogen accident/incident, its consequences, and how it will evolve depending on the actions of the First Responders during the virtual training.
An assessment sheet has been created for the instructors to check and validate the achievement of trainee’s skills and knowledge during the exercises.
A dual approach is proposed. On the one hand, simple scenarios where every trainee can view different vehicle types (car, bus) with specific effects following an incident hydrogen (leak, fire, explosion) and also two complex scenarios where all players together will be able to train in response to several under unified command as a serious game: a multiple-vehicles accident on a highway with a hydrogen vehicle and an incident involving a trailer carrying liquefied hydrogen;
A total of 148 exercises have been led by the trainees, organised as 20 international teams, 10 drills have been practiced by the same trainees, organised in 18 national teams. During the first workshop 2 exercises have been led as shared tabletops, involving all participants.
- The realization of the three experimental training sessions
The schedule of the training sessions was agreed by the members of the consortium at the Steering group number 4 in University of Ulster, Belfast, in June 2015 and is given in this below table 1.
Date Location and venue
1st pilot training session 14th- ou 18th of March 2016 Aix-en-Provence, France, ENSOSP site
2nd pilot training session 9th-13th of May 2016 Aix-en-Provence, France, ENSOSP site
3rd pilot training session 6 th-10th of June 2016 Aix-en-Provence, France, ENSOSP site
The announcement regarding the HyResponse pilot training sessions was made available on the homepage of the project http://www.hyresponse.eu/ and specific flyers of promotional campaign for these courses has been sent at all the database of European officers known.
ENSOSP, leader of this WP has for each session managed all logistics registration and management of trainees, trainers and observers.
In total, we received:
- 71 trainees from 15 countries (Germany, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Spain, United States, France, Italy, Norway, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, United Kingdom, Sweden, Czech Republic) ;
- 21 observers from 10 countries (Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, France, Netherlands, Portugal, United States, Japan, Taïwan)
It’s important to notice that into initial Description of work (DoW), the consortium only to train 50 trainees from Europa. Also, observers was not mentioned. But at constant cost, without exceeding the initial budget, and with the authorization of the FCH-JU project manager, we were able to train more trainees, including from outside Europe and also host observers.
In parallel, and on average, about more 15 trainers have been necessary to do the different pedagogic sequences:
- 7 of them were typical partners, include into all life of the development of the project ;
- 8 of them were French firemen officers, especially dedicated to these three training sessions to operate either the physical platform either the virtual one.
The ENSOSP has registered each of these profiles, managed their accommodation in the school and their restoration.
Registrations for trainees, observers and trainers were composed of:
- A registration form with civil information and logistic desires; Administrative manager from ENSOSP booked the air plane or train travels and sent electronic tickets. Also, he booked accommodation, hotel rooms into school or all meals during each session.
- An agreement between the ENSOSP and the trainee's employers' organization, which specified the rights and obligations of each person in terms of modalities of reception, safety and responsibility during the training session;
- A fire gear size form because it’s ENSOSP which that provided all fire-protection clothing for trainees
The training programme aimed to train firefighters from all across Europe and provide the possibility for other interested stakeholders to learn more about the training programme and to participate as observers.
The trainees and observer could arrive on the Sunday before the training week and leave during the weekend following the training week.
As the programme was threefold, it was divided in 3 types of sequences:
• Educational training, including the state-of-the-art knowledge in hydrogen safety,
• Operational training on mock-up real scale hydrogen and fuel cell installations,
• Innovative virtual reality training reproducing in detail an entire accident scenario, including the influence of first responder's intervention.
Figure 1Pilot session program (Monday-tuesday)
Figure 2 Pilot session program (Wednesday-Friday)
Lecture
Strategies and intervention
Operational platform
Virtual reality training
An educational training briefcase has been delivered to each trainee at the end of the session and may be revised after each session based on lessons learnt, exchanges of feedback and best practices. It is envisaged that educational materials, delivered during these pan-European training sessions, can be used to develop and deliver training sessions at local level with use of language different from English, although the consortium will not be responsible for any translations.
Members of the consortium have been taken part in the training as organizers and instructors to deliver the educational content during the class, the operational exercises and virtual reality training sessions.
The feed-back from trainees on technical and organisational aspects of the training sessions have been gathered and analysed and used to improve the content, format and delivery channels.
- On the basis of these feedbacks during the experimental training sessions, but also from the state of the art on knowledge, on operational feedbacks and on existing regulations, a European emergency response guide was entirely written by ENSOSP.
Into its more than 150 pages, it corresponds to a collection of good practices. The HyResponse project provides emergency response strategies and tactics for Fuel Cell Hydrogen (FCH) vehicles and applications. The strategies and tactics presented in this document are for the purpose of sharing information about responding to incidents/accidents involving FCH cars, buses and applications. This document is made available on an “as is” basis for “informational purposes” only.
It describes the relevant actions to perform by First Responders and the ones to avoid, in order to ensure the protection of life, property and the environment, and to prevent any dangerous escalation in the development of the accident/incident. The guide is illustrated with figures developed during the project (pictures of numerical simulations, graphical representations, 3D representations of HFC systems, etc.).
- Many dissemination actions and recovery was also provided to present the HyResponse program: presentations at international conferences (International conference on hydrogen safety training in Yokohama (Japan), CTIF 2015 (Roma), Technical days emergency response vehicles on journeys 2016 (France), WHEC 2016 (Spain),) and especially the organization on the ENSOSP premises of the second international workshop on Hydrogen Safety training for First Responders in September 2016, having gathered about 35 participants from 10 different countries. Also, the physical training platform has been officially inaugurated by French authority in June 2016.
The following part and table present with more details this important work of the project.
In this same spectrum of recognition and scope of the HyResponse project, the physical training platform was officially inaugurated by the French Director General of Civil Security and Crisis Management and the Prefect of South Defense and Security zone, on behalf of the French Minister of the Interior on June 23, 2016. In front of these French officials, an explanation and a demonstration of its application was realized by the ENSOSP scientific Director and his operative team.
- To allow effective communications of project results and training material to First Responders throughout the EU, a website (www.hyresponse.eu) dedicated to educational and training programmes on hydrogen safety for First Responders has been developed during the project.
The public area includes diverse information available to visitors, some of them are:
• Home tab has five menu items:
o About HyResponse. This sub-section describes the scope of the project; the overall strategy of the work plan and the graphical representation of the main components of the project
o Participants. This sub-section lists and provides the details of the organisations involved in the HyResponse project
o AC panel. This section shows the details of the members of Advisory and Consultative Panel (ACP)
o Deliverables. This section lists the deliverables accessible to the public. The visitors are able to download final versions of public deliverables
o Milestones. This section lists the milestones within the project.
• Educational training tab has four menu items:
o International Curriculum. International Curriculum on hydrogen safety training for first responders
o Hydrogen safety basics for first responders.
o RCS for first responders. The education materials for first responders on relevant codes and standards
o Case studies
• Operational training tab contains the materials demonstrating operational platform and illustrating practical operational training exercises carried out by the pilot session trainees.
• Virtual Reality (VR) training tab. The virtual reality training in the project was developed and delivered by CRIS partner.
• Emergency Response Guide tab contains public deliverable D6.3 “European Emergency Response Guide”
• Contacts tab. This section enables website users to contact either the Project Coordinator or the Website Administrator via email.
Virtual Reality tools as a support for the online training have been integrated. In particular, 3D representations of each hydrogen application have been customized to allow online operational functionalities interaction. For awareness and understanding enforcement, the models have been modified in order to exhibit more ‘How does it work’ or ‘Why is it dangerous’, or ‘What are the safe operation conditions’, etc. by providing specific 3D highlights, animations or any other visualisation technique. Animation films have been also produced from the scenarios showing adequate response strategies.
Potential Impact:
Potential impact
The initial training period of five days expects to be scalable on both the training time and also on the content taught. If at first, it is intended for first responders’, who are mainly firefighters and personnel responsible for industrial safety, it can be upgraded in interesting modules instead of operational commanders or complex crises managers. Modules for instructors (train the trainer) can also be anticipated in the future.
The training system is thought to be sustainable beyond the completion of the project. Partners as well as the international community could benefit of it.
Similarly experimental formations in the project, beyond the technical experience and educational device, following the experience feedback made, have produced a methodological European emergency response guide, really collection of good practices, tactic and strategic responses against hydrogen risk. This guide is releasable to the public throughout the community.
Finally, the environmental aspects related to the use of hydrogen as a new energy carrier is preferred. The choice to implement this training center on the site of the ENSOSP academy is also motivated by its proximity to the Euro-Mediterranean Europole of Arbois, real professional technology park dedicated to the environment that welcomes its members companies, 4 clusters, research centers and educational institutions, etc.
The existence of a website for the project HyResponse: www.hyresponse.eu public access also aims to promote cultural integration of this risk to the population: the measure but will make his non-polluting environmental impacts, real energy alternative in the future.
Another impact or strong point of this project is the creation of a network of identified actors on the European scene, but more broadly. Interesting contacts with the United States of America but also with Japan, Taiwan have been linked, In addition to the sharing with the European Community.
Dissemination activities
The filled template A2 “list of dissemination activities” below will complete this rapid summarize:
• A project identity has been created (logo, poster and PPT template). The materials have been updated (poster and flyers) and are available on Hyresponse website.
• The final (HyResponse) Workshop on Hydrogen Safety Training for First Responders has been organised on the 15th of September 2016 at French Academy for Fire, Rescue and Civil Protection Officers (ENSOSP) in Aix-en-Provence, France. The feedback of the workshop has been provided. It complete the first one, organized on the 03rd and 4th of September 2014 with more than 70 European and International particpants.
• Advisory Panel of First Responders meetings has been organised.
• 2 press release have been published
• European Hydrogen Association booth established in HANNOVER MESSE 2015 and 2016 and it promoted the benefits of HyResponse safety training to First Responders, at both EU and international levels.
• Regular articles and updates in newsletter of FAST, EHA and its 24 national associations and ENSOSP newsletters.
• The HyResponse project has been introduced in 13 different EU events and will be presented after the end of the project to present the final results during the World Energy Solutions in Germany, 10 – 12 October 2016.
• International collaboration and effective communication took place with:
o International Association of Fire and Rescue Services (CTIF): Commission “Extrication and New Technologie”
o Automotive car manufacturer
▪ Toyota
o US DOE and PNNL
o HySUT (Japan)
o Taiwan
• European collaboration and effective communication took place with:
o European Fire Services from (Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom)
List of Websites:
www.hyresponse.eu
email contact and info : specialized.training@ensosp.fr