HyApproval - Handbook for Approval of Hydrogen Refuelling Stations
(under European Commission FP6 contract N° 019813)

The aim of the project is to make a "handbook for approval of Hydrogen refuelling stations" which will be used to certify public hydrogen filling stations in Europe.

This handbook will be issued to Hydrogen refuelling station operators and local authorities. It is a fact that the acceptance of Hydrogen as a fuel is absolutely not homogeneous within the different member states of Europe. As an example of this, there is no Hydrogen refuelling station in France except the one which has been built by Air Liquide on its private and protected Hydrogen testing zone.

There is also no hydrogen demonstration projects currently running in France. This is mainly due to the complexity and non formalized process of getting authorisation. In Germany, more than ten refuelling station are running, some of those are even open to the public. Europe has already a draft regulation for compressed hydrogen refuelling stations developed in the frame of the EIHP project. This regulation is not recognized as a law in the member state, however, it is important that we achieve a regulation which will be transferred to country laws uniformly. In other words, Hydrogen is not more dangerous in one country than in another country just because the H2 fuel cell vehicle has crossed the border: It should be refuelled the same way in the same type of refuelling station with the same environment in all EU countries.

The so-called “Hydrogen Economy” will never exist if the public does not accept the product we develop. Therefore, we propose in this project to develop a public acceptance tool, using the tools and results of the HYFLEET:CUTE, ECTOS, ZERO REGIO, CEP projects. The results of this study will be annexed to the handbook. In order to increase the credibility of this project, the consortium will include recognized notified bodies as well as local fire departments and non governmental organizations. Those organizations will review the documents and scenarios and will help local authorities if necessary.

The project proposes to involve the approval authorities in these
countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, The Netherlands) investigated in more detail and submit to them the cases, compare their questions / comments, and update the handbook accordingly.
As the number of such filling stations will significantly grow over the next years it is necessary to collect all the data already available from existing public (and non - public) hydrogen filling stations in order to define reasonable authorisation - processes, standard scenarios which could be taken as a "benchmark" for certification and to answer the most common questions related to hydrogen as a "new" energy carrier in the public. The handbook shall include real success stories as well as failures in order to help the different parties in staying in “win-win” situations during the approval process.

Specific safety scenarios will be studied as well and included in the handbook as examples. Chosen scenarios will be crosschecked with the conclusions / calculations made by the HYSAFE consortium. Sensitivity studies of the filling station and related equipment (trailers,…) shall be done and lead to safety recommendations. The safety part of the handbook shall include the evaluation with fire brigades of fire fighting procedures to be applied on H2 vehicle fire. The project as well establishes links with the US, Japan and China to monitor their domestic approval procedures and benchmark them with the EU member states procedures.

Project partners are: