Development of safety standard for mobile hydrogen refueling facilities in China

With the progress of fuel cell vehicle demonstrations in the past ten years, a number of hydrogen refueling infrastructures have been built in China including both stationary and mobile facilities. To facilitate the development of hydrogen infrastructure, the National Technical Committee on Hydrogen Energy of Standardization Administration of China (SAC/TC309) has made a lot of efforts in the development of regulations, codes and standards associated with hydrogen technologies. One of the achievements related to hydrogen infrastructure is the GB50516-2010 Technical Code for Hydrogen Fuelling Station, which is targeting at stationary hydrogen fuelling facilities while the mobile hydrogen fuelling facilities are not included. As a supplementary document to Technical Code for Hydrogen Fuelling Station, a new standard, Safety Technical Regulations for Mobile Hydrogen Refueling Facility, is now under drafting. This paper introduces the development of this new standard and addresses its highlights. Safety experience learned from engineering practice is integrated into the safety specifications. Safety studies on mobile hydrogen refueling facilities are also applied to the development of the safety standard. Highlights of the specifications and the progress of the draft are summarized in terms of technical safety requirements, operation management and other special provisions. Finally, future perspectives on the development of standards for mobile refueling facilities are proposed.