Risk-informed process and tools for permitting hydrogen fueling stations

The permitting process for hydrogen fueling stations requires demonstration that the proposed facility meets certain safety requirements. Currently, many permitting authorities rely on compliance with well-known codes and standards as evidence of a safe design. To ensure that a hydrogen facility is indeed safe, the code and standard requirements should be identified using a risk-informed process that utilizes an acceptable level of risk. This paper describes an approach for risk-informing the permitting process for hydrogen fueling stations that relies primarily on the establishment of risk-informed codes and standards. Using accepted Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA) techniques and the established risk criteria, the minimum code and standard requirements necessary to ensure the safe operation of hydrogen facilities can be identified. To facilitate consistent risk-informed approaches, the participants in the International Energy Agency (IEA) Task 19 on hydrogen safety are working to identify acceptable risk criteria, QRA models, and supporting data. (C) 2009 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.