What Does it Mean When a Product is Listed for Certification?
Global investment into hydrogen and compressed natural gas powered vehicles and their supporting infrastructure continues. That means selecting and specifying high-performance components are essential. But where to start? On-vehicle systems require dozens of components to operate reliably. Each of these components should be tested and proven to deliver reliable performance.
In a new four-part Ask Swagelok video series, we look to make sense of the current landscape. In the third video of our four-part Ask Swagelok series focused on hydrogen and CNG standards, Chuck Hayes walks us through what it means to have a product listed for certification.
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CRAIG GIFFORD:
Welcome to Ask Swagelok. I’m Craig Gifford here with Chuck Hayes, who is Swagelok’s global hydrogen expert.
And, Chuck, we've been talking about certifications in the clean energy world for hydrogen, for compressed natural gas. And one of the questions that comes up is, “What does it mean when a product is listed?” And then, “What should designers do when they're trying to use a product that is not listed?”
CHUCK HAYES:
Well, that's really gonna depend on different areas and what regions you're in and what the local regulations are. So for instance, in most places, vehicles need to have parts that have been tested to the international standard of their area. So in North America we’d mentioned before, that's the CSA standards; in Europe, it would be EN, and the rest of the world would be ISO.
But when we talk about having them being tested, there's two different ways to do that testing. One is doing it where you go through a test house, and one of the test houses we use is Kiwa in the Netherlands. They'll do all the testing to the international standards and then they send it out to their authority, which is RDW in their country. And they'll put a little purple stamp on every page and they'll give it a listing number. And that's where you end up with the full listing.
Other places will do testing to the standards but not actually have a listing for it, will have a certification or a letter of attestation saying it's been tested and a declaration and the whole test report is available. So, when does that become important? One of the big ones is infrastructure. Oftentimes on an infrastructure, all of the standards have a caveat in them that allows you to use parts that have a historical use and industry. So we've been using these for 50 years. You're not going to run through all the tests. So, how do you prove that? Well, one way is you go to a lab and you get testing done. The other way is we have our internal test reports that go along with it and that is able to let them then use them on those stations.
But then the next piece is when we're putting in infrastructure, it gets a little bit weird when you have to go, “Who's going to approve it? Who's that authority?” So in the United States, for example, we have people called the Authority Having Jurisdiction in that area. And in Texas that would be Texas Railroad. In California, it's CARB, the California Air Resources Board. And in Kansas, it's the local fire chief.
CRAIG GIFFORD:
Oh, okay. So it's a mixed bag.
CHUCK HAYES:
It’s a mixed bag. It really depends on where you're at. And to help those people be able to approve it, having test reports available helps them know that that valve is okay—that it's been tested in H₂ and is good for use. Again, all about safety. So, it changes depending on where you're at. And, when you get into trying to figure out what to do and where to go, we're here to help.
CRAIG GIFFORD:
Well, thanks, Chuck. We really appreciate it. And thank you for joining us at Ask Swagelok.