Our colleague Edit Musci recovered an interesting article of Toyota in the web: https://fuelcellsworks.com/news/toyota-engineers-testing-limits-of-hydrogen-safety
Author: Thomas Jordan
First Meeting of European Hydrogen Safety Panel
On 12th of March the first time the European Hydrogen Safety Panel EHSP met for designing the first year actions in Brussels. The EHSP will develop a safety guidance document for FCH 2 JU funded projects, will analyse data collected in the European databases and will start further support actions at program and project level.
Communication will take place via the respective webpage at the FCH 2 JU site http://www.fch.europa.eu/page/european-hydrogen-safety-panel and via a regularly issued newsletter.
EHEC 2018 opened – HySafe supports safety session
Malaga (Spain), 14. March 2018 – The European Hydrogen Energy Conference 2018 (EHEC 2018) was opened today in the Convention Centre of the capital of the Costa del Sol in Spain. Javier Brey, head of the Spanish Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association, welcomed some 225 participants, of which some 75 came from outside Europe.
Not only papers were presented, participants could also get a feeling for fuel cell cars on the wheel of either a Toyota Prius or a Hyundai Nexo.
One of the parallel sessions on the first day was about safety. HySafe supported this session. As introductory speaker Olaf Jedicke (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) gave an overview on HySafe, in particular the ICHS conference and the biannual workshop on research gaps.
PhD positions in the Hydrogen Safety topic available at University Ulster
The deadline for applications for PhD studies at Ulster University in the area of hydrogen safety is 19th of February 2018.
Three topics of doctoral studies in hydrogen safety are published at Ulster University website:
- Prevention and Mitigation of Accidents with Hydrogen-Powered Vehicles in Confined Space (https://www.ulster.ac.uk/doctoralcollege/find-a-phd/237925)
- Safety of Liquified Hydrogen in Energy Applications (https://www.ulster.ac.uk/doctoralcollege/find-a-phd/237942)
- Large-scale Premixed Combustion Modelling and Simulations (https://www.ulster.ac.uk/doctoralcollege/find-a-phd/237930)
The studies are funded via Vice-Chancellor Research Award (PhD fellowship is “not less than 14,553” per annum not subject to tax, no fee). The funding is competitive by submission of a research proposal within a topic followed by a phone interview in due course. You are welcome to contact supervisors to discuss your proposal, or just get in contact with Prof. Molkov (v.molkov@ulster.ac.uk).
Research Priorities Workshop RPW 2018 – Save the date!
The pair years workshop will be organised this year in week 37 (September 10-14, 2018) in Buxton, UK. HSL will be the host.
A more detailed open invitation will be provided soon by the chairperson of HySafe’s research committee, together with the final electronic version of the report of the RPW 2016.
European RCS Strategy Coordination Group SCG Meeting on 9th of February
The next meeting on 9th of February in Brussels will provide information on the new elected chair of the group. The PNR gap analysis and a survey of FCH JU projects will guide preparation of a priority list for PNR/RCS activities. There might be some updates on the European safety panel.
In particular industry partners are invited to participate actively.
HySafe will be represented by Thomas Jordan.
Project on Pre-normative Research for Liquid Hydrogen Safety PRESLHY started
The European project dedicated to pre-normative research on the safe use of liquid hydrogen LH2 officially started on 1st of January 2018.
The three years project will strive to fill current knowledge gaps with regard to dispersion, ignition and combustion of cryogenic hydrogen, LH2 respectively. The recent “hype” on hydrogen applications, like trucks, trains and ships, puts a focus on much more powerful supply infrastructure and this implies an increased interest in LH2.
The kick-off meeting of the PRESLHY project will take place in late March or middle of April at the premises of the project coordinator KIT. More details are provided on the project website www.preslhy.eu
FCH JU project call for Hydrogen Safety in Tunnels
The call of the European FCH JU for “PNR for safety of hydrogen driven vehicles and transport through tunnels and similar confined spaces” is open!
For details see http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/opportunities/h2020/topics/fch-04-1-2018.html
Deadline for submitting proposals is 24 April 2018.
Because of the limited budget a small preliminary consortium has been formed within HySafe members. Interested parties shall just reply to this post or contact Thomas Jordan.
ICHS mentioned in major German newspaper
In an article labelled “Megatrend fuel cell at the turning point” published in one of the major German newspapers (see https://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/bilanz/article172713241/Brennstoffzellen-Ist-Wasserstoff-besser-als-Batterie.html ) the safety topic is addressed with the “HySafe conference”.
Although there is a somehow strange summary of the conference findings (safety distance for HFS and investigated scenarios), the general notion is positive …. and it’s good to be visible.
Thanks to Mr. Schmidtchen providing the link.
FCH 2 JU calls for hydrogen safety experts!
The FCH 2 JU has published the call for experts to establish the European Hydrogen Safety Panel before end of this year.
For the details see http://www.fch.europa.eu/page/european-hydrogen-safety-panel and file in your application.