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Summary

The European Institute for Hydrogen Safety HySafe is the reference institution for integrated efficient hydrogen safety research. Potential customers benefit from using the best of the complementarily tuned infrastructure, unique guidance for using state-of-the-art tools and from easy access to the expertise gathered in the European Institute for Hydrogen Safety HySafe human capital. Therefore the interested private or public entity will preferrably mandate or even join this institute to solve their specific hydrogen safety problems in an integrated and optimised manner rather than to repeat expensive and partially inefficient fragmented research on their own.

It provides the tools for an enhanced communication in the "community", provides guidance for an advanced learning curve. This will prevent accidents which could jeopardise the general positive effect the introduction of the energy carrier hydrogen could have

Besides efficient research the European Institute for Hydrogen Safety HySafe provides data, analyses, documents and education. This expertise is continuously consolidated and communicated via the dissemination efforts of the International Conference ICHS, the Safety Handbook BRHS, and the e-Academy. The European Institute for Hydrogen Safety HySafe provides a unique research platform for experts involved in international standardisation and regulation activities. Via this platform the consolidation of the European votes for new international standards is based on scientific knowledge which allows reliable perfomance based approaches instead of over-conservative and prescriptive standards. The activities are coordinated in an open democratic manner and financed by member fees and small contributions from the coordinated international projects.

Introduction

Starting_point_and_framework

The introduction and commercialisation of hydrogen as an energy carrier of the future induces continuously increasing demands on all aspects of safety. The new private usage of hydrogen involves new technologies, new materials and new solutions for which broad and long-term experience is actually lacking. On the other hand as safety impacts the economic attractiveness and public acceptance of any innovation, these new technologies and applications should provide at least the same level of safety, reliability, and comfort as today’s fossil energy carriers. The related products should be safe and usable and receivable as an improvement.

A fair market for trading the related innovative products has to be based on homogenised legal regulations, which usually refer to commonly accepted standards. Ideally, these standards should be based on performance requirements, to allow new concept or solutions to enter the market. Therefore a broad understanding of the interference of hydrogen and the related products is necessary, which can only be achieved on the basis of sound and in the best case coordinated research work. In parallel to these activities the research community should be addressing the still existing gaps of knowledge in well coordinated way. Furthermore behaviour when interfering with these products is to be understood if they interfere with safety based on profound and concerted research work.

As the research related to hydrogen safety was heavily fragmented in Europe, the European Commission (EC) decided to support the required integration and focusing of the related efforts with the help of a new instrument, the so-called Networks of Excellence (NoE). In the sixth framework programme (FP6) the NoE HySafe has been mandated to provide the integration among 24 European partners and one Canadian partner. All the network activities, the integration of knowledge, tools, procedures and staff and knowledge, the coordination of relevant research and providing one interface to the experts should help to identify and remove at an early stage any safety related barrier for the introduction of hydrogen as an energy carrier.

As the EC funding actually is a seed funding of a increasingly self-sustained entity the most attractive and most integrated activities of HySafe should be transferred into a long lasting entity. The formation of such a follow-up, legal entity is additionally motivated by the fact that for many activities the status of a NoE is not sufficient neither for the visibility of the network or for some rather practical aspects, for example financial management of the conference organised by HySafe.

The current state of the preparation under the NoE HySafe is that the consortium is involved in the execution of the 3rd JPA co-funded by the EC and on the way to prepare the 4th planning period. Two internal projects in internal (non-catastrophic) releases and mitigation techniques in tunnels are presently being conducted. The first issue of the HySafe Handbook for Hydrogen Safety is going to be published in December 2006. The experimental capacities of the partners have been joined including a regular know-how exchange among experimentalists on workshops and a common detailed view on these virtual European laboratories and facilities given on the website. The CFD tools are benchmarked and further development of combustion modelling has been initiated. The HySafe accident database HIAD is going to be launched. With its relative open interface it is the first of this kind for hydrogen accidents only. The available mitigation techniques are presently assessed with an orientation for real application. An easy to be used and reliable tool for the determination of safety set-back distances is under development. The well established website www.hysafe.net offers a broad spectrum of flexible information exchange. Besides standard email and newsgroup services, meeting announcement and planning is available. The main document and staff administration is currently supported by the website. The successful 1st International Conference on Hydrogen Safety (ICHS) is going to be reorganised for 2007 and the e-Academy has started this year the Summer School activities. The RC&S experts established a procedure for setting up consolidated European votes in their WP meetings. It is planned to provide a unique European safety assessment framework for all subsidised EC projects if the EC support this “Safety Action Plan” activity.

The framework prepared by the pre-cursor EC NoE HySafe network for satisfying the steadily growing public and private demand for guidance in hydrogen safety related issues is worth while to be maintained by EINST HySafe. The recently initiated and coordinated activities of NoE HySafe generated already the reputation of this network being European's unique reference for questions related to hydrogen safety.

All these activities and achievements by the HySafe Network converge towards the creation of a durable structure as a holding entity for the continuation and improvement of the current Network work. For this purpose, the HySafe Business Plan deals with the first approach to a framework to implement the vision of establishing HySafe beyond its current network status towards the European focal point for hydrogen safety, promoting collaborative activities for the safe development of a hydrogen economy in Europe in the process.

Methodological_approach

Businessplan/Objectives and goals

Vision
The vision of the European Institute for Hydrogen Safety "HySafe" is to be the European focal point for hydrogen safety.

The objectives to approach this the vision are

  • to provide support to EC, HFP, JTI and RC&S bodies in hydrogen safety issues,
  • to provide or facilitate consolidated educational framework (academic & technical),
  • to provide or facilitate communication/information platform to all stakeholders, and
  • to provide or facilitate research initiation and coordination.

These objectives are identically mirrored in the portfolio of products and services of the institute.

The support for the hydrogen and fuel cell community consists of providing a whole framework and guidance for the safety of supported projects, called Safety Action Plan. On this basis a fair evaluation and a maximum information exchange will be reached. Learning will be eased and double failures avoided.

This close contact to the practical demonstration and implementation projects will help to communicate research findings. Additionally it will keep the education attractive as scientific experts and industry drivers will generate a win-win situation, where science will find financial support for urgent issues and new young researches with new ideas, industry will have best educated engineers and possibilities to outsource the cross-cutting topic safety to a "public" institution.

The research coordination will help to optimise the research efforts. Unwanted duplication of work will be avoided, the best fitting teams can be addressed.

In summary one may derive the following Mission Statement:
The mission of the European Institute for Hydrogen Safety "HySafe" is to promote collaborative activities for the safe development of a hydrogen economy in Europe.

The Hydrogen Economy

Description of the way towards the hydrogen economy and its market

Main line of argumentation:

  1. Generic hydrogen economy description; Hydrogen is important as the only practical energy storage, as stoage hydrogen supports the broader usage of renewable power, sun, wind... Flexibility of the energy market with the storage function and diverse pathes for production and usage.
  2. Hydrogen security is important for the hydrogen seconomy; Each energy carrier has a potential for uncontrolled, accidential energy releases, therfore security is the prerequisite for the establishment of the new technologies based on hydrogen as an energy source. Hydrogen has a very different profile compared to established gaseous energy carriers.
  3. Potential within the hydrogen society; Forecasts, predictions etc
  4. Trends and demands from the hydrogen society; anticipation for future needs like guidance in safety relevant issues, scientifically based and clear information of the public, support of agreed perfomance based standards and regulations referring these harmonised standards.

Matrix description: description of the different segments and target groups

Hot topics

  • Standardisation and certification of hydrogen safety
  • Bundling of fragmented hydrogen safety research
  • Technical and academic education for hydrogen safety
  • Tracking and documenting hydrogen safety issues and events
  • Mediation and moderation for all the stakeholders
  • Dissemination of safety related issues for the hydrogen economy
  • Hydrogen safety lobbing

Player and stakeholder

All the stakeholder in the supply chain of the possible future hydrogen economy are also potential customers for the cross-cutting safety services.

The supply chain might be stuctured as follows:

  • Hydrogen suppliers
  • Hydrogen storage
  • Hydrogen transport
  • Hydrogen Users (hardware and device producers…)
  • Hydrogen end-users
  • Safety stakeholders (Public, Fire department etc)
  • Infrastructure stakeholders (tunnels, bridges, buildings, garages…)
  • Standardisation Bodies (CEN, ISO,...)
  • Certification and Legislation stakeholders

All the listed stakeholders are potential customers of the integrated services of HySafe and potential users of their propagated products.

 CUSTOMERS
SERVICESECLocal authorities/
Nat. Governments
IndustryResearchGeneral public
Access to the HIAD data base XXXX
Access to experimental facilities X (fire departments)XX 
Access to simulation tools XXX 
Digital libraryXXXXX
Web-site on H2 safetyXXXXX
Adviser to the EC, regulatory bodies, local authorities, governmentsXX(SMEs maybe)X
(res. prog. & priorities)
 
Issuing Best Practice Documents & State of the artXXXX 
Information package (simplified) XX X
Organisation of ConferenceXXXX 
Training institute (academic & “hands on”) XXXX
Contributions to Regulations, Codes & StandardsXXX  

All these customers need support and guidance in safety issues via guidelines to follow the state-of-the-art. The benefit will be an optimised efficiency in safety relevant projects and an accelerated learning via homogeneous reporting.

Best practices will help to implement the highest possible safety level and harmonised standards will help to establish a fair international open market. EINST HySafe will provide the scientific basis which is needed for performance based standards, which are the preferrable solution for the early markets. Regulations will refer to these agreed standards and therefore will be implicitely harmonised.

The public acceptance will be enhanced when products with an evidently superior safety status enter the early market. Avoiding major accidents in the public will help to with regard to avoiding duplication of mishaps.

Possible to quantify customers benefit?

Needs

Matching of stakeholders with hot topics of interests represents the need within the topics from the different stakeholders.

Competencies of the Hysafe network

Description of the different competencies comprised within the Hysafe network. These competencies serve as the starting point for the later description of the proposed products and services. Might be taken from the Amendment to Annex 1 and depends also on the actual consortium.

Products and services

International Conference on Hydrogen Safety (ICHS)

The International Conference on Hydrogen Safety (ICHS) is a biennal event organised by the Network of Excellence (NoE) HySafe, Hydrogen Safety (UE contract SES6-CT-2004-502630 within the VI European FWP) in collaboration with the principal International and European projects and/or Institutions and under the agreement of the International Partnership for the Hydrogen Economy (IPHE). The ICHS conference series will be something different from all other “Hydrogen Conferences”; in fact it will always focus on safety issues relevant to improve and coordinate the knowledge and the understanding of hydrogen safety. For this reason all the contribution will be evaluated exclusively in terms of safety relevant contents. The ICHS series will help the elaboration and coordination of ideas, information, proposals, and suggestions and will aim at the provision of a basis for the dissemination of knowledge. In this way it will also contribute to promoting public awareness by providing a basis for communicating the risk associated with hydrogen. Moreover the ICHS series will be the one of the principal events where to promote and disseminate all the activities of the European Institute for Hydrogen Safety (EIHS).

For any other information about ICHS 2007, please visit: http://hysafe.org/conference For the ICHS 2005 edition, please visit: http://conference.ing.unipi.it/ichs2005/index.html For the ICHS 2005 Proceedings, please visit: http://conference.ing.unipi.it/ichs2005/ICHS-Papers/index.htm or ask for ISBN: 88-8492-314-X For the ICHS 2005 Presentations, please visit: http://conference.ing.unipi.it/ichs/presentations/index.htm

Description of ICHS

The International Conference on Hydrogen Safety (ICHS) series will be organised every two years by the European Institute for Hydrogen Safety (EIHS) in collaboration with the principal International and European projects and institutions in this thematic area. The EIHS will establish the resources to set up the various Committees (Organising, Scientific and Local Committees) where, besides the EIHS HySafe partners, other International and European representatives can also be involved. These Committees will take experience from the last two ICHS (Pisa-Italy, 8-10 September 2005 and San Sebastian-Spain, 11-13 September 2007) to guarantee the qualitative level and a constant growth and improvement of the conference.

ICHS Competition

Up to now, there is no other conference based on hydrogen safety. Thus, the main competition for the ICHS should be to always serve as a reference event for the innovation and quality of topics. The ICHS, as well as the EIHS (European Institute for Hydrogen Safety), can bundle specific activities and projects becoming an international point of reference and providing targeted services to research, industry and regulatory bodies.

Sustainability of ICHS

Taking into account the experience of the 1st ICHS, where no financial losses were registered and where profits were used to organise a second event, and considering that the economic structure of the conference (fees, sponsor, stands, etc.) was dimensioned to obtain the maximum dissemination level with minimum applicable fees (about 400€, i.e. the 40-60% of the fees that are applied in other similar events), it comes out clearly that the ICHS series can have a positive balance for the activities of the European Institute for Hydrogen Safety. As an example, taking as reference the number of registered attendants to the 1st ICHS - about 250 people - and presuming to double the registrations, on the basis of similar expenses, we the Conference could produce a profit of about 100.000 €. Furthermore, regarding ICHS' sustainability, during these three day events, other products of the European Institute for Hydrogen Safety can also be presented, published and/or sold. In this manner, the conference may serve as a vessel to consolidate the position of the European Institute for Hydrogen Safety against the world wide competition.

Biennial Report on Hydrogen Safety (BRHS)

Description of BRHS

In few words, the Biennial Report on Hydrogen Safety is intended to periodically deliver information on existing knowledge, gaps and progress on hydrogen safety issues. It pulls together existing scientific and technical information shared between members of the HySafe consortium and beyond when available. This document provides technical insight into the state of the art knowledge on hydrogen safety, ranging from basic physical and chemical knowledge (dispersion, combustion) up to practical information related. This information is for instance regarding state of the art risk control measures or emergency response plans. The various topics dealt with in this document are by order of appearance:

  • Hydrogen fundamentals
  • Engineering
  • Hydrogen release and dispersion
  • Hydrogen ignition
  • Hydrogen combustion
  • Effect of hydrogen on materials
  • Accidental consequences
  • Risk assessment
  • Prevention measures
  • Detection measures
  • Mitigation measures
  • Safety examples for key hydrogen technologies
  • Regulation and standards

It is a living document that aims at providing support to people and professionals in their everyday work. The intended recipients will be – among others - safety engineers, designers, users, fire-brigades, public authorities and policy makers, etc. Information published in this report will reflect scientific and technical quality, impartiality, transparency as well as a duty of prevention. This living document will be updated on a biennial basis in coordination and accordance with the International Conference on Hydrogen Safety. Its content can be seen as the basis of any curriculum on hydrogen safety.

BRHS Competition

In the US, the NASA has edited a comprehensive and quite complete free practical guide on hydrogen safety. This Nasa document is not edited any more. Another guide on hydrogen safety would be the ISO TR 15916 “Basic considerations for the safety of hydrogen systems” document. This document can be taken as a synthesis of the Nasa document.

The BRHS is somehow different in the sense that it goes deeper into the understanding of the hazardous phenomena associated with hydrogen, their consequences as well as into risk evaluation. Worldwide, there is no similar document available today.

Sustainability of BRHS

The BRHS answers a real need of risk evaluators. It is a collection of the best of knowledge of the various HySafe partners. It should be seen as an encyclopaedia that will grow along with knowledge on hydrogen safety. It undoubtedly supports the dissemination of the HySafe consortium knowledge for the benefit of safe hydrogen economy. Since this report aspired to be the main reference in the topic of hydrogen safety, it is same to assume that it will be available at most libraries and research facilities, especially the ones dealing with hydrogen as an energy carrier. In this manner, digital and hard copies of the BRHS will be purchased by these institutions. This will generate an amount of revenue which will under current assessment be at least equal to the costs related to the creation, maintenance, publishing and distribution of the BRHS.

Hydrogen Incidence and Accident Database (HIAD)

The database for Hydrogen Incidences and Accidents (HIAD) has been carefully designed to fulfil the different requirements from public and professional users. The basic concept is to have an open, public interface allowing everybody to enter data with the highest possible degree of detail. Different interpretations of the same incidence or accident are possible. This design was chosen in such manner to induce even the specialist to show that the actual event was understood excluding the repetition of failures.

Having access to a common database with input from a large number of data providers will improve the overall understanding and basis for hydrogen risk assessments and enable the establishment of, for example, generic/historical leak frequencies, ignition probabilities and probabilities for fatalities and injuries. Based on the open interface, professional users might develop their own post processing tools and thereby disseminate the database even in their professional environment.

The public user will receive an impression of openness and professionalism. Thus the database will increase public awareness and trust in the technology and the community itself.

In the following passages the database itself, its competitors and the suitability with respect to the European Institute "HySafe" will be described.

Description of HIAD

The database will be one of the first products available on the European Institute "HySafe" website. In the initial state the database will be populated with approximately 50 cases. The search service is free and is not restricted to a sub-set of the data.

Advertising on the website and close to the database will be considered for financial compensation. The yearly report will be sold. However, the executive summary of this yearly report will be published for free.

Any services related to special post processing of the data will be forwarded to any free and suitable resource among the "HySafe" partners. If no resource is available subcontracting or forwarding the potential customer to an external service provider are possible measures.

HIAD Competition

There are several professional databases on industry scaled accidents. Examples are the TNO database or the EIGA database. None of them are focussing on events involving hydrogen. Currently there is only the US DoE database which has a comparatively small number of attributes compared to HIAD. Actually the US development is at least partially based on the HIAD concept, what will make a regular merging of the actual data a relatively easy job. Such an activity is likely to be supported by the public money and will not burden the institutes financials. On the other side a worldwide unique database would be even more convincing to the public user and more useful for any professional service based on this collected experience.

Sustainability of HIAD

HIAD perfectly suits to all activities of the institute. Especially the research coordination and the support of external publically co-funded projects will profit considerably from such a product. It will be useful to map and prioritise research activites and increase the learning curves in demonstration projects, provided these projects will share their experience via this tool. As such the database itself is a Risk Assessment & Management and a Dissemination tool. Both activity fields represent core business of HySafe.

Coordination of Hydrogen Safety Research

Description of the Coordination Activities

Competition regarding the Competition Activities

Sustainability of the Coordination Activities

Coordination of European Education and Training related to Hydrogen Safety

UU proposes the lead coordination of the following databases (HyDBase) which need to be implemented and/or maintained as well as cross-coordinated:

  • Database of Hydrogen organisations (working in the Hydrogen economy) – HyDBase-Org
  • Database of Hydrogen experts and lecturers against contribution areas/specialty subjects - HyDBase-Xpert
  • Database of Hydrogen Safety teaching materials (and against copyright holder(s)) - HyDBase-TM
  • Database of Hydrogen Safety publications - HyDBase-Pub
  • Database of Hydrogen Alumni (qualified students having received formal higher education in Hydrogen) - HyDBase-Eng
  • Database of Hydrogen Safety related courses - HyDBase-EDuT
  • Database of Hydrogen related jobs - HyDBase-Jobs
  • Database of Hydrogen Safety related research by PhD researchers against research topics - HyDBase-Res – the students could also present “Work-in-Progress” at internal hydrogen conferences

All the above should be coordinated by same organisation so to ensure complete responsibility as well as fast and accurate updates and full interlinking of databases. It should be possible for complex searches to be made so that with “all, or some, key words” a selection of those qualifying organisations/data with required contact information – e-mail addresses, post addresses, named contacts etc. can be imported in to mailshots or lists for the user (using standard MS Windows or Office programs).

UU proposes the lead coordination of all Hydrogen Safety Education and Training Courses:

  • Listing of all Secondary, Further and Higher Education organisations and hydrogen related courses, (including short courses) and the promotion of hydrogen awareness and safety to these organisations
  • Further all further and higher education courses should be evaluated and validated against an accepted and agreed standard and in compliance to the International Curriculum on Hydrogen Safety Engineering.
  • All other industry based and/or short courses should also need to be properly validated and suggest awarding a type of European Hydrogen Safety “Kite Mark” so as to maintain a consistent (high) standard across the industry.

Delivery of training courses at Hydrogen related Conferences, especially at the International Conference on Hydrogen Safety.

Development and production of the Hydrogen Safety Education & Training Newsletter (HySETNews?), published 2-3 times a year.

Development and production of the Journal of Hydrogen Safety, published 2 times a year with a strong editorial panel of the best available/recognised and reviewers.

Description of the Education and Training Activities

UU proposes the lead coordination of the following databases (HyDBase) which need to be implemented and/or maintained as well as cross-coordinated:

  • Database of Hydrogen organisations (working in the Hydrogen economy) – HyDBase-Org
  • Database of Hydrogen experts and lecturers against contribution areas/specialty subjects - HyDBase-Xpert
  • Database of Hydrogen Safety teaching materials (and against copyright holder(s)) - HyDBase-TM
  • Database of Hydrogen Safety publications - HyDBase-Pub
  • Database of Hydrogen Alumni (qualified students having received formal higher education in Hydrogen) - HyDBase-Eng
  • Database of Hydrogen Safety related courses - HyDBase-EDuT
  • Database of Hydrogen related jobs - HyDBase-Jobs
  • Database of Hydrogen Safety related research by PhD researchers against research topics - HyDBase-Res – the students could also present “Work-in-Progress” at internal hydrogen conferences

All the above should be coordinated by same organisation so to ensure complete responsibility as well as fast and accurate updates and full interlinking of databases. It should be possible for complex searches to be made so that with “all, or some, key words” a selection of those qualifying organisations/data with required contact information – e-mail addresses, post addresses, named contacts etc. can be imported in to mailshots or lists for the user (using standard MS Windows or Office programs).

UU proposes the lead coordination of all Hydrogen Safety Education and Training Courses:

  • Listing of all Secondary, Further and Higher Education organisations and hydrogen related courses, (including short courses) and the promotion of hydrogen awareness and safety to these organisations
  • Further all further and higher education courses should be evaluated and validated against an accepted and agreed standard and in compliance to the International Curriculum on Hydrogen Safety Engineering.
  • All other industry based and/or short courses should also need to be properly validated and suggest awarding a type of European Hydrogen Safety “Kite Mark” so as to maintain a consistent (high) standard across the industry.

Delivery of training courses at Hydrogen related Conferences, especially at the International Conference on Hydrogen Safety.

Development and production of the Hydrogen Safety Education & Training Newsletter (HySETNews?), published 2-3 times a year.

Development and production of the Journal of Hydrogen Safety, published 2 times a year with a strong editorial panel of the best available/recognised and reviewers.

Competition regarding the Education and Training Activities

To assess the market for potential trainees in hydrogen safety a questionnaire was sent to 600 companies and institutions in the Database of Organisations Working in the Hydrogen Industry (). There were 28 respondents and an analysis of their replies indicated that 119 potential trainees would be interested in hydrogen safety education on an annual basis. This implied that a projected market of 5000 companies and institutions would yield 1000 trainees on an annual basis. As a result, it will be necessary to deploy educational/training resources at a number of universities throughout Europe to meet this demand for hydrogen safety education. Further analysis of the replies indicated that the relative interest in the various modes of hydrogen safety education is as follows:

  • postgraduate certificate (PGC): 10.7%
  • postgraduate diploma (PGD): 1.5%
  • master of science (MSc): 29.3%
  • short course (SC): 42.2%
  • continuing professional development (CPD): 16.3%

Currently there is only one higher education course in hydrogen safety engineering in the world, delivered by HySafe-partner UU (see: http://campusone.ulster.ac.uk/potential/postgraduate.php?cid=C514PJ). The topical content of the course complies with the International Curriculum on Hydrogen Safety Engineering (http://www.hysafe.org/index.php?ID=68) and teaching materials are developed from keynote lectures presented at the European Summer School on Hydrogen Safety (http://www.engj.ulst.ac.uk/esshs/).

Master classes within the International Partnership on Hydrogen Economy (IPHE) is a potentially interesting area for coordination of teaching and training activities in hydrogen safety (http://www.iphe.net/default.htm).

The following educational and training courses are currently being offered by competitors outside the NoE HySafe:

  • Air Products Hydrogen Energy Training and Services

http://www.airproducts.com/Products/LiquidBulkGases/HydrogenEnergyFuelCells/TrainingAndServices.htm

Sustainability of the Education and Training Activities

There is a growing need for specialists in hydrogen safety engineering. According to the Strategic Research Agenda [1], which acts as a guide for defining a comprehensive research programme that will mobilise stakeholders and ensure that European competences are at the forefront of science and technology worldwide, education will continue to play a pivotal role in spreading hydrogen applications to the broader public until 2050. In the short term outlook from 2005 to 2015, training and education efforts are needed to build the necessary human resources to lead research and to allow a steady stream of trained scientists, engineers and technicians to develop the area. The Workgroup on Cross Cutting Issues [2], dealing primarily with non-technical barriers to the successful implementation of the deployment strategy for hydrogen and fuel cells in Europe, indicates that educational and training efforts are needed during this period to avoid any dissonances that might hinder the building of consumer and non-technical executive confidence. The Workgroup [2] has estimated that during the Framework Programme 7 period (2007–2013), the educated staff needed may amount to 500 new graduates from postgraduate studies on an annual basis in all of Europe. A preliminary study has revealed that of these 500 new graduates on an annual basis, about 100 professionals are needed with a post graduate degree dedicated to hydrogen safety [3].

  1. Strategic research agenda. The European hydrogen and fuel cell technology platform. Implementation panel, 2005.
  2. Wancura H, Mayo B, Reijalt M, Mertens JJ, Maio P, Claassen P. Draft Implementation Report WG5 Cross Cutting Issues (XCI). The European hydrogen and fuel cell technology platform, Implementation panel, 2006.
  3. Dahoe A.E. and Molkov V.V. On the development of an international curriculum on hydrogen safety engineering and its implementation into educational programmes. Sixteenth World Hydrogen Energy Conference, Lyon, France, 13-16 June, 2006.

Summary products and services

All products and services represent the necessary ingredients for a focal point for hydrogen safety. Potential customers find one interface representing the state-of-the-art in hydrogen safety, know that they will find the appropriate expert and will have the most efficient fit for their specific problems as not only the product and services are covering nearly all possible needs but also the profile of the represented HySafe partners are quite complementary. Although professional consulting services are not directly provided the potential customer will be forwarded to the corresponding consulting expert who might be a member of HySafe or an external listed in the supporters database.

In summary this means that the presented products and services represent the vital pillars for the scientific and application orientated network, on the other side are promising goods with a high potential for being marketed during early opportunities created by publicly financed demonstration and implementation program of the new hydrogen technologies. Customers will have a one stop shop opportunity with a open and almost public reference character.

The products and services cover the essential process of knowledge consolidation via the coordinated research activities and open up this scientific basis via the broad dissemination and educational activities. The combination of research and (academic) education is extremely effective, a highly modern concept, supported by industry. There are good reasons why even the EC considers to set up similiar constructions like the European Institute of Technology (EIT).

The open and professional an supportive character of the offered services will help to further the trust in the ability to cope with the new safety issues and to support the safe introduction of the new energy carrier hydrogen.

Business model

Description of the business model

The main aim of Hysafe’s business model is to market and sell the services and products developed within the network in order to utilise the revenues to sustain the structure and expand the R&D activities of the network. In this manner the results achieved so far can be maintained and broaden through new research activities.

HySafe's products and services can be divided in two groups: sustainable and not sustainable. Some of the activities currently being performed would generate enough income (through fees and revenues) finance themselves. This is for example the case for the International Conference on Hydrogen Safety. Some of these activities would actually generate enough revenues to enlarge the HySafe entity's with earned profit. This profit could be then use to finance further activities or to pay for some of the non sustainable products and services within the HySafe offer.

For the non sustainable products and services a project based funding is necessary in order to secure enough resources to implement this measures. Applying for other European projects and initiatives would be one of the many possibilities to obtain the required capital to boost the HySafe offer.

Description of the revenue model

The revenue will be generated by participant fees and by contributions from the internationally coordinated projects. This should cover what is required to maintain the Management Office consisting of the Coordinator, the three Cluster Leaders and the secretary.

Other activities like the conference or the publications - the Biennial Report for Hydrogen Safety and theInternational Journal for Hydrogen Safety - will generated sufficient revenue to cover the related expenses and efforts provided by the European Institute for Hydrogen Safety.

Important initial milestone is the integration of the HySafe Safety Action Plan in FP7 which will indirectly provide a smooth transition from financially supported EC integration grant to a more self-sustained entity.

Financing and funding

Listing of the different financing and funding mechanisms utilised for the sustainability issues of the HySafe network.

Organisation and management

Organization

The type of the organization should be a combination of no.1 and no.2 of question 8 in the questionnaire:

  • Secretariat/Permanent organisation: Office in xxx (Brussels) with 1 secretary/cost controller and one co-ordinator,
  • task experts for handling of customer requests in their relative home organisations representing the interests of all relevant partner organisations(Virtual Institute)

{+ Legal status of the organization: not-for-profit, charity-type such as an association, e.g according to Belgian law. The name of the new organization has to include HYSAFE to build on and benefit from the work already performed on hydrogen safety issues.

Comments: no unlimited liability, no common liability, no capital injection into the new organization as a stakeholder required. Joining and leaving is easy and does not require time consuming and expensive legal actions.

Set-up and operation: Contribution of the Commission shall be requested to run the infrastructure (Secretariat). The new organization should be attached to an existing infrastructure for cost reasons, at least in the beginning. Reasonable, differentiated membership fees. A Coordinator should be the first point of contact for incoming inquiries acting as a matchmaker for the member organizations to direct the inquiries to the member organizations according to the subject.

The results of the questionnaire are an ample source of preferred choices on many topics expressed by the HYSAFE members. The results have to become the backbone of the set-up and the mission statement of the new organization.+}

The organisational structure of the European Institute for Hydrogen Safety consists of the Institute's Governing Board, the Coordination Committee and the Management Office. The Management office consists of the Coordinator, his deputee, who should be one of the Cluster Leaders, and the secretary. The association is open for membership for hydrogen experts world wide. This Management Office in Brussels, as the only physical manifestation of HySafe, will provide the main lobbying, advertising and a part of the coordinating activities. It is responible for the internal and external information, administrates the financial affairs and maintains the website for further collaborations. With this background the lean structure should be mirrored in the legal form. An independent association or A German “Verein” provides in principle all (physical, non-physical and non-german members, easy accounting, non-profit entity, with many similar entities having also a “Verein” status)

The Coordinator and the secretary/cost-controller is employed by the association, either under a standard employment contract or under a service procurement agreement. The three Cluster leaders responsible for "Dissemination", "Experimental and numerical modelling" and "Risk Management" are elected for a two-year period.

 Because of this critical impact and unique chance offered via FP7 and the scheduled JTI for hydrogen and fuel cells the legal structure should be provided in the planning phase of FP7 (which actually has started already). The legal status simply makes it easier to act there as an entity and to further the visibility of the EHSC.

Governance

Member requirements.

Decision making criteria and mechanisms.

Description of the different implications and roles for the partners involved within the sustainable struc-ture, different roles having different involvement levels for the different activities of the network (Governing board level)

Possible legal frameworks and structures based on consensus and explanation of the choices made.

Management

Organisation plan for the day to day management unit (managing director level)

Administration of the network

Administration of the network (finances, production, logistics, etc) (CFO, controlling etc)

Opportunities and threats

Opportunities for the network

Opportunities for future developments Opportunities to promote the Hydrogen society Etc…

Threats for the network

The following describes general threats and barriers that HySafe may encounter along the way to achieving its objectives and vision. HySafe has activities which are naturally self-contained and self-sustained, e.g. the conference and the educational activities, and other activities which won't generate any direct income (support of standardisation, possibly coordination, etc). In general, there could be an attitude which sees the necessity for the safety guidance as very limited in time. According to this the catalogue of knowledge gaps will be filled soon and the required guidelines and standards might be easily transferred from existing rules. However, it is easy to prove that such attitudes might provoke accidents with much more negative consequences for the whole industry than a reasonable and steady investment in safety. The main threats the HySafe initiative faces concerning its sustainability can be summarised in the following five different categories:

  • Threats through competition within Europe which could weaken the sustainable structure’s position
  • Threat of product separation within the HySafe offer
  • Threats from external offers (for example from the US) competing with competencies developed within HySafe and targeting the unique position the network currently enjoys.
  • Threat of an inconsistent HySafe offer that is inconsequentially marketed
  • Threat of shift in priorities from the partners towards the HySafe

To (1): The potential European competitors for HySafe any projects or institutions with a European mandate on similar topics (M349, HY-CO etc...), large gas/oil companies such as Shell, Linde or their representative groups, and consultants in the gas producing field. Concerning the consultation and qualification of products European certification bodies such as “one shop buying”, TÜV ..., could compete with the HySafe offer. Therefore the orientation should be less product specific and more in the pre-normative research. This means further development of tools (development of test methodologies, model development,....) rather than usage of tools (commercial CFD, standard tests) should be the focus of the HySafe activities in this area.

To (2): The activities which generate their own sustainable revenue are potential candidates for a separation due to mixed interests from partners. Not only could these activities be threatened by external institutions or initiatives from other countries, but also internally from partners willing to further develop them on their own. It is important to point out the added value of conducting these income generating activities under a single platform such as HySafe due to its special safety mandate in Europe.

To (3): There are other platforms for international information exchange or research coordination. The most prominent group in this area is the IEA HIA Task 19. This activity suffers from similar constraints as the HySafe pre-cursor. The financial support for this information exchange platform is limited in time, but all members show an interest in a prolongation of this work. National entities in particular in Japan and US with a more direct access to the stronger public financers of research and with far simpler national decision making structures could found similar institutes with an international scope.

To (4): Within the scope of possible HySafe activities, there are some grey zones or even interesting fields that do not match the specific objectives and mission of the sustainable structure. The prospect of future revenues could make partners divert from the path agreed upon the run-up discussions. A systematic approach to all the different activities and products of HySafe is necessary in order to guarantee a consistent offer and to ensure the successful implementation of its mission and vision.

To (5): During the advancement of the activities of the future sustainable structure a change in priority for key partners in the project needs to be avoided. The day-to-day business in the member research facilities will often be in conflict with the activities of the sustainable structure. Therefore it is necessary to ensure that the commitment agreed upon by every member institution of the sustainable HySafe structure is honoured. In this manner, the significance of the sustainable HySafe initiative can be ensured.

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Page last modified on March 02, 2007, at 04:20 PM