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The annual general assembly of the members of HySafe was held today in Brussels. The most important decision was the re-election of the present executive committee of the board, comprising A. Tchouvelev (president), T. Jordan (vice-president), B. Weinberger (secretary), and I. Azkarate (treasurer).

Apart from this the assembly heard the report about the activities of last year and about the budget. Both were approved. So were the plans for next year.

The assembly was especially delighted to hear that the International Conference on Hydrogen Safety had achieved its objectives both in financial terms and also considering the quality and quantity of scientific papers. The excellent cooperation with the European Commission and its authorities, which is a characteristic feature of this year’s conference, will be continued.

The 5th International Conference on Hydrogen Safety (ICHS) was opened today in Brussels. The conference is supported by the European Union and the FCH JU, which was clearly felt during the opening ceremony. Not only is the conference held in the Charlemagne building in Brussels, the conference centre of the Commission, but the gala diner for the participants at the closing of the event on September 11 will be sponsored by the FCH JU and held at the Berlaymont building, the official seat of the Commission.

HySafe president Andrei Tchouvelev opened the session with the words: “We talk about hydrogen safety not because some think hydrogen is not so safe. To the contrary, we talk about hydrogen safety because we want to keep it safe. And for the next 3 days we will share how we can do it successfully.”

The first morning of the conference was chaired by D. Ristori, Director General Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. Statements were given by representatives of the EU General directions for enterprise, transport, energy, and JRC as well as of the FCH JU. Also represented in the list of the opening speakers were representatives of the hydrogen and fuel cell programs of Japan, USA, China, Lithuania, and Germany and the European Hydrogen Association.

Participants look forward to three days packed with information and the possibility to communicate and to exchange ideas and informations.

The final program of the 5^th International Conference on Hydrogen Safety (ICHS 5) is now available. You can download it here:

Program

Check it and find out that not only scientists and engineers will find a lot of valuable contributions. Important people from politics and economy will illustrate the future of the hydrogen economy from various countries. Representatives of the EU will discuss the impact of the Horizon 2020 program in the safe market introduction and use of hydrogen. Follow debates on the state of the art on what to do for the introduction of hydrogen. Roundtables on activities all of the European and international standardization bodies (ISO, etc.) will be provided.

A sustainable energy future is not possible without hydrogen and fuel cells as elements of it. But they will never be part of the system if they can not be demonstrated to be safe for the consumer. So hydrogen safety is a key aspect for the transition of our energy system.

See you in Brussels from September 9-11!

HySafe is now an official partner of the Hydrogen Implementation Agreement (HIA) of the International Energy Agence (IEA). The IEA Committee on Energy Research and Technology approved the agreement on sponsorship from the association to the project. HySafe will now participate actively in the latter.

The HIA is one of the most important partnerships worldwide. The HIA envisions a hydrogen future on a clean sustainable energy supply that plays a key role in all sectors of the global economy with a 30+ year operating history, 23 members (including the EU), and significant accomplishments to it’s credit, the HIA is the premier global resource for technical expertise in hydrogen R&D.

HySafe is now a member of the European Hydrogen Association (EHA), the European top level association for the advancement of hydrogen technology. This was decided during the Annual Meeting of the EHA members held on June 28 in Brussels.

Most European national hydrogen associations are members of EHA which was founded in 2000 and represents the field mainly towards the institutions of the European Union. HySafe expects to enter a wide field of activity for the benefit of hydrogen safety both on the European level as well as together with the national associations and the industry members of EHA.

You can now register as participant to the 5th International Conference on Hydrogen Safety (ICHS 5) to be held from September 9 to 11 in Brussels.

Visit our website and click on “Early Bird Conference Registration”!

Just in case you always wanted to know some more about the activities of HySafe and maybe also meet some of the representatives of the the association …

come to Hannover in April, in particular on Thursday April 11. There is a Group Exhibit “Hydrogen and Fuel Cells” as part of the Hannover Industrial Fair in hall 23. On April 11 at 11:00 HySafe will present itself for a full hour and hopefully answer all your questions.

Learn more about the group exhibit

here: http://www.h2fc-fair.com/

and about the Technical Forum

here: http://www.h2fc-fair.com/hm13/forum/technical-forum.html

We look forward to meeting you there!

Since February 28, 2013 HySafe is an official partner (type A liaison) of the Technical Committee No. 197 “Hydrogen Technologies” of the International Organisation for Standardization (ISO). This was decided during the TC’s plenary meeting which was held in Montréal (Québec, Canada).

ISO TC 197 is generally acknowledged as the leading entity in the world to develop consensus-based international standard documents for hydrogen technologies. A number of standards both for mobile and stationary applications have been published, more are in the making, and a number of new topics have been proposed during the recent plenary meeting.

While quite a number of persons associated with HySafe are already active in the TC and its workings groups anyway, they are doing so as representatives of their national standardization bodies. Now HySafe has the possibility to directly and independently participate in the work of the TC including commenting on draft documents and being involved in the work of individual working groups.

HySafe is very honoured to be accepted as an official liaison partner by a body like this and takes this as a challenge to fulfill its mission at this level.

Brussels, January 20, 2013 – Preparations for the 5th International Conference on Hydrogen Safety (ICHS2013) to be held in Brussels from September 9-11 are progressing well. A world-renowned insurance company FM Global from Johnston (Rhode Island, USA) became the first sponsor of the conference.

HySafe president Andrei Tchouvelev welcomed the new sponsor saying: “We are very pleased to have FM Global as our Bronze Sponsor. FM Global has been a loyal supporter of the ICHS since its inception in 2005. We are looking forward for their active participation in the conference program.”

Dr. Sergey B. Dorofeev, research director for fire hazards and protection, at FM Global explained the reasons for his company to become sponsor: “FM Global is constantly monitoring the development of new technologies including hydrogen and modern research in loss prevention. ICHS with its focus on safety, scientific quality and new technologies is an excellent venue to disseminate research results and promote safety culture.”

Sponsoring is still possible for interested companies and other parties. Details are available from our website (see below).

HySafe is the global association for the safety of hydrogen, in particular concerning its use as energy storage medium and fuel on the basis of renewable primary energies. HySafe is a non-profit association under Belgian law and has 33 members, mainly research institutions and companies from Europe, North America, and Asia. More details on HySafe are available under http://www.hysafe.info/.

The International Conference on Hydrogen Safety (ICHS) is held every other year and organized by HySafe. ICHS is the global top event for the field of hydrogen safety. Previous conferences were held in Pisa (2005), San Sebastian (2007), Ajaccio (2009), and San Francisco (2011). More details on ICHS 2013 are available under http://www.ichs2013.com/.

FM Global provides comprehensive global commercial and industrial property insurance, engineering-driven underwriting and risk management solutions, groundbreaking property loss prevention research and prompt, professional claims handling. More details on ICHS 2013 are available under http://www.fmglobal.com/.

A safety training for professionals was held on October 17 in Berlin by HySafe. The training, held on the premises of the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing, gave an overview of the safety matters associated with hydrogen handling and dealt with a number of topics in detail.

Speakers were HySafe president Andrei Tchouvelev as well as Hervé Barthélémy and Ulrich Schmidtchen, members of the HySafe board as chairmen for industry relations and PR, respectively.

The 14 participants had also the opportunity to look at a hydrogen laboratory and to study the various measures for explosion protection and other safety installed there.

While HySafe has already organized basic safety courses at various occasions this was a first step towards a higher level aiming at professionals. Based on the feedback from the participants the association will improve the offers of this kind of event in order to make it still more attractive. Announcements when and where more trainings will be held will be published here on this website in due time.