In March, SAE International’s Fuel Cell Standards Taskforce reported the completion of two technical standards: SAE J2601, “Fueling Protocols for Light Duty Gaseous Hydrogen Surface Vehicles”; and SAE J2799, “Hydrogen Surface Vehicle to Station Hardware and Software”. The standards were created to harmonize hydrogen fueling worldwide for both 35 MPa and 70 MPa pressures.

A key to maximizing a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle’s driving range is to ensure that the fueling process achieves a complete fill to the rated Compressed Hydrogen Storage System (CHSS) capacity. An optimal process will safely transfer the maximum amount of hydrogen to the vehicle in the shortest amount of time, while staying within the prescribed pressure, temperature, and density limits.

The taskforce developed the SAE J2601 light duty vehicle fueling standard to meet these performance objectives under all practical conditions. The standard defines the fueling protocol and operational fueling parameters that ensure both station and vehicle maintain their safety limits, while delivering optimal fueling performance. The results of the standard allow a representative FCEV under the target conditions to be completely fueled within three minutes.

The team working on SAE J2601 performed extensive simulation and sensitivity studies which were validated through laboratory testing with representative CHSS hardware and field testing with fuel cell vehicles. The new SAE paper (SAE 2014-01-1990) documents the lab and field validation testing for SAE J2601.

Resources

• Schneider, J., Meadows, G., Mathison, S., Veenstra, M. et al., “Validation and Sensitivity Studies for SAE J2601, the Light Duty Vehicle Hydrogen Fueling Standard,” SAE Int. J. Alt. Power. 3(2) doi: 10.4271/2014-01-1990