FCH JU Contaminant Risk Assessment

The main goal of HyCoRA has been to reduce the cost of hydrogen fuel quelity assurance. Mapping of probability of occurrence for key impurities has been done by sampling of hydrogen fuel from refuelling stations and subsequent analysis of the fuel in compliance with prevailing standards for hydrogen fuel quality. Another important goal in HyCoRa has been to asess the fuel impurity tolerance limit. By use of a downscaled automotive stack, testing of the impact of impurities like formaldehyde and formic acid has been shown that their negative impact is lower than reflected in prevailing standards. SINTEF has worked extensively with the development of analytical method for the development of quality control of hydrogen fuel development with a specific aim to reduce the number of analytical techniques required. SINTEF has taken part in several inter-laboratory comparisons in order to evaluate performance. In HyCoRA, dissemination of results has been extensive. Interaction with standard developing organizations (ISO, CEN, ASTM) has been continuous for topics like hydrogen fuel quality specification, risk asessment and analysis. The results from HyCoRA has been requested in several settings and presentations have been given in several meetings.

In HyCoRA project, a strategy for cost reduction for hydrogen fuel quality assurance QA is developed and executed. For developing this strategy, hydrogen quality risk assessment is used to define the needs for hydrogen impurity gas analysis, system level PEMFC contaminant research as well as needs for purification needs in hydrogen production, especially produced by steam methane reforming (SMR). The use of qualitative and quantitative risk assessment enables identification of critical needs for gas anal ysis development and guides the research work on those issues, which require most attention. The development of quantitative risk model enables implementation of data from other parallel activities in USA, Japan and Korea. The measurement campaigns in hy drogen refuelling stations, as well as in SMR production units, provide quantitative data, which can be used for identification of canary species, when analysed with help of quantitative risk assessment. Essential part of the HyCoRA project is hydrogen c ontaminant research in PEMFC system level. The research is performed in down-scaled automotive fuel cell systems, which can replicate all the features of full-scale automotive fuel cell systems, including the change of gases in the anode and cathode durin g the start-stop cycling. The contaminants and levels to be studied are, excluding obvious carbon monoxide, determined using risk assessment with help of automotive advisory board. The main objective of HyCoRA project is to provide information to lower re duce cost of hydrogen fuel QA. However, it will also provide recommendations for revision of existing ISO 14687-2:2012 standard for hydrogen fuel in automotive applications.