Scope of the Project:

HyFacts is a “Coordination and Support Action” aiming to develop and initiate dissemination of training material for Regulators and Public Safety Officials, which are responsible persons and work for entities, having to position themselves in the increasing number of upcoming installation of hydrogen-related technologies in public areas, companies, universities, research centres, fairgrounds, harbour sites and other places where fuel cell and hydrogen installations and mobile applications shall be installed and operated in the near future.
Fuel Cells and Hydrogen (FCH) technologies are relatively new as to institutions which are dealing with issues like building regulations, local regulations, public safety and permission of technical installations or even much earlier in the project development. Most of the staff of these institutions does not have the necessary knowledge to judge on safety aspects and tend to take decisions on the basis of either obsolete or incomplete knowledge or refuse to take any decision at all. This situation leads to heavy delay of decisions or to technically unreasonable, costly and sometimes also very ineffective safety measures to obtain the approval for a hydrogen installation and applications.
In the past it could be observed that permission problems could have been avoided if the relevant involved persons would have had a higher level of knowledge regarding hydrogen and its related technologies based on already implemented technology, actual research results, realised projects and the Regulations, Codes and Standards (RCS) currently in effect.
On the way to an increasing number of hydrogen related installations and vehicles throughout Europe, it can be expected that also more and more of these will be placed outside the major cities, where some projects might already have been implemented or where the liaison between the local industry which is active in this specific field and the relevant officials is already established. This will lead to the fact that more decentralised and smaller entities will get in touch with hydrogen related issues and will have to take profound decisions.
The HyFacts project aims to develop and disseminate fully up-to-date contemporary material for customized training packages for Regulators and Public Safety Experts providing accurate information on the safe and environmentally friendly use of hydrogen as an energy carrier for stationary and transport applications under real conditions. The training material will focus on the fundamental aspects of hydrogen safety and on the safety approaches and criteria developed in standards and according to which hydrogen systems are engineered for the safe use of hydrogen under all circumstances.

Description of the overall strategy of the work plan

Work package 1: Project coordination
The WP1 covers two entities, the administrative project management to be performed by TUV SUD Akademie, as well as the Steering Group (SG) to ensure a proper and smooth overall project management.
Work package 2: Elaboration of technical content
The WP2 will identify all relevant technical information necessary for a better understanding of hydrogen as such and its related technologies. The partners will make a collection of descriptive texts e.g. on the chemical and physical properties of hydrogen with regards to safety and environmental effects, complemented by tables, drawings and CFD models based on the latest research but also referring to already installed hardware in the field. The relevant RCS currently in place will be in important part of this WP. The outcome of this WP combined with the identified audience in WP3 will be the base for the training material. The delivery of the information will be in different formats which will need modification in the WP4.
Work package 3: Audience identification
This WP will develop a list of contacts which will be used for the later dissemination of the training package and will set up a questionnaire, asking the potential audience for their requirements in terms of content, format, length and extent of the training material. The outcome of WP3 will have an important influence on WP4 but will also lead to a good overview of interested groups and their specific needs.
Work package 4: Elaboration of training package
This WP will rely on the input delivered by WP2 and WP3. Firstly, it will supply a draft of the training material based on the findings of the WP3. Secondly, the technical content will be increased in value and clarity by the integration of pictures, graphics, video material and other didactic accessories. Last updates on this material will be made after the second conducted short course.
Work package 5: Implementation of training package
The WP5 will develop a basis for the first testing of the training material, which will be developed by WP4. A framework for implementation of the training package will be provided and relevant channels for later education and training will be established. The project website will be built and its public content will lead to a sustainable promotion of the information to the identified audience. Two short courses will be another important source of feed-back to WP4 and will give precious information on necessary changes in the teaching material prior to its final publication.
Work package 6: Conclusions and recommendations
The WP6 will collect all input related to the further improvement of the teaching materials as well as methods how to keep it up-to-date in a harmonised form throughout Europe and give indications who should be involved in such an activity, after the project has ended

Graphical presentation of the components showing their interdependencies.