Ramping up the Hydrogen Highway

2008-10-14

In Whistler, British Columbia, crews are building what is to become the latest stop on the B.C. Hydrogen Highway.

Work is taking place on building a hydrogen fuelling station in the resort municipality. When the station is completed in 2009, it will be the largest hydrogen fuelling station in the world.

"That’s a huge part of what we’re doing," says Gary Schubak, the manager of the Hydrogen Highway program.

The construction of the Whistler fuelling station is the latest step in establishing the program that was launched in 2004.

The BC Hydrogen Highway, a collaboration of technology providers from Canada's hydrogen and fuel cell industry sector, and various levels of government, demonstrates the commercial applications of hydrogen technology. 

The Hydrogen Highway deploys a variety of hydrogen technologies and products, from fuelling stations, to production facilities, to hydrogen-fuelled vehicles, to stationary power products that use hydrogen to generate heat and electricity for buildings and industry.

The Whistler station is one of seven stations slated to be built and operating by 2010, when the Hydrogen Highway program will be showcased during the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

The program has already seen the installation of a basic infrastructure of five hydrogen fuelling stations in Southwestern BC, which are fully operational.

In addition to the fuelling stations, a number of hydrogen-fuelled vehicles are now operating in southwestern B.C. There are five Ford Focus fuel-cell vehicles operating in the area. Also, there are four hydrogen-compressed, natural gas-powered buses in Vancouver; as well as nine hydrogen internal-combustion-engine pickup trucks; and two internal-combustion-engine shuttle buses operating in North Vancouver.   

Schubak says safety fears have been among the challenges the hydrogen fuel industry has had to overcome to gain wider acceptance.

"There’s always been a safety perception with hydrogen. I’ve been in the industry for over 15 years and I’ve seen that and been confronted by it," he says. "I think there’s a need for a lot more public information about hydrogen as a fuel. There’s a lot of education yet to be done."

The development of international standards relating to various hydrogen technologies has helped ease some of these fears.

The International Organization forStandardization (ISO) has a technical committee (ISO/TC 197) made up of industry professionals and various government workers that is developing standards, which should lead to hydrogen becoming a more accepted type of fuel. The Standards Council of Canada (SCC) holds the technical committee’s secretariat, which is operated by the Bureau de normalisation du Québec (BNQ). Canadian Randy Dey serves as the committee’s chairman. As well, Canada’s federal department of Natural Resources (NRCan) provides financial support to the country’s standards-development efforts.

To date, the committee has developed 12 published international standards, covering topics ranging from basic considerations for the safety of hydrogen systems, to the industrial and commercial applications of generators that use a water electrolysis process to create hydrogen.  

In 2007, the Canadian Hydrogen Installation Code (CHIC) was published by the BNQ and approved by the Standards Council of Canada as a national standard (CAN/BNQ 1784-000). The code defines the requirements applicable to the installation of hydrogen equipment in a variety of environments. Its publication is expected to remove any safety concerns that have acted as roadblocks in the adoption of hydrogen technology.

Dey, who also chairs the CHIC technical committee, says these standards have proven vital in advancing the hydrogen fuel industry.

"Everybody has their own idea of what safety is," he says. "What the committee does is bring together a number of different voices and reach acceptance from all sides. For hydrogen and related technologies, the standards development activities are recognized as being very important to move these new technologies forward. The committee has been working hard with those in industry and other stakeholders towards this goal."

Schubak says that as the 2010 deadline approaches, he expects the Hydrogen Highway will showcase a balanced portfolio of hydrogen-based products and applications during the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. 

"Beyond that," he says, "it’s up to all of us to define where we want this road to go."

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This article first appeared in Volume 35 of CONSENSUS Magazine, 2008.  The information it contains was accurate at the time of publication but has not been updated or revised since, and may not reflect the latest updates on the topic.  If you have specific questions or concerns about the content, please contact the Standards Council of Canada.

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