On 13th July 2006, the European Commission published a preliminary draft proposal for a new regulation concerning hydrogen fuel systems. The Commission recognises that the use of hydrogen as a fuel for motor vehicles, either with internal combustion engines or with fuel cells, offers the potential for significant reductions in vehicle emissions, and wants to ensure that vehicle manufacturers are not prevented from introducing hydrogen fuelled vehicles by any uncertainty regarding the legislative requirements that will be applicable to them. Therefore, they have formulated a preliminary draft proposal on the safety performance of hydrogen fuel systems, as part of a consultation exercise to gather views from interested parties before finalising their proposal on this subject.
The draft regulation follows a similar format to that used in ECE Regulation No’s 67 (LPG fuel systems) and 110 (CNG fuel systems), containing requirements for the components used in the fuel system and requirements for the fuel system installation in the vehicle. It covers both compressed (gaseous) hydrogen and liquefied hydrogen fuel systems, and specifies which tests each fuel system component must meet. The full list of tests is very extensive and includes pressure tests, burst tests, endurance (durability) tests, corrosion tests, temperature cycle tests, penetration tests, impact tests, chemical exposure tests and a fire test. The actual test procedures are not specified in this draft regulation, as it is intended to reference ISO, EN and ASTM standards for this purpose.
Interested parties can submit comments on this preliminary draft proposal directly to the European Commission, using the following e-mail address - entr-hydrogen@ec.europa.eu. The closing date for the submission of comments is 15th September 2006.