Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Fuel System Integrity of Hydrogen Vehicles; Compressed Hydrogen Storage System Integrity; Incorporation by Reference

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION <SUBAGY>National Highway Traffic Safety Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>49 CFR Part 571</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. NHTSA-2024-0006]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 2127-AM40</RIN> <SUBJECT>Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Fuel System Integrity of Hydrogen Vehicles; Compressed Hydrogen Storage System Integrity; Incorporation by Reference</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Department of Transportation (DOT). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM). <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> This notice proposes to establish two new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) specifying performance requirements for all motor vehicles that use hydrogen as a fuel source. The proposed standards are based on Global Technical Regulation (GTR) No. 13. FMVSS No. 307, “Fuel system integrity of hydrogen vehicles,” which would specify requirements for the integrity of the fuel system in hydrogen vehicles during normal vehicle operations and after crashes. FMVSS No. 308, “Compressed hydrogen storage system integrity,” would specify requirements for the compressed hydrogen storage system to ensure the safe storage of hydrogen onboard vehicles. The two proposed standards would reduce deaths and injuries that could occur as a result of fires due to hydrogen fuel leakages and/or explosion of the hydrogen storage system. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> You should submit your comments early enough to be received not later than June 17, 2024. In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act, NHTSA is also seeking comment on a revision to an existing information collection. For additional information, see the Paperwork Reduction Act Section under the Regulatory Notices and Analyses section below. All comments relating to the information collection requirements should be submitted to NHTSA and to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) at the address listed in the <E T="02">ADDRESSES</E> section on or before June 17, 2024. <E T="03">Proposed Effective Date:</E> The date 180 days after the date of publication of the final rule in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> . <E T="03">Proposed Compliance Date:</E> The September 1st that is two years subsequent to the publication of the final rule. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> You may submit comments to the docket number identified in the heading of this document by any of the following methods: • <E T="03">Federal eRulemaking Portal:</E> Go to <E T="03">http://www.regulations.gov.</E> Follow the online instructions for submitting comments. • <E T="03">Mail:</E> Docket Management Facility: U.S. Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590-0001. • <E T="03">Hand Delivery or Courier:</E> 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. • <E T="03">Fax:</E> 202-493-2251. <E T="03">Instructions:</E> All submissions must include the agency name and docket number. Note that all comments received will be posted without change to <E T="03">http://www.regulations.gov,</E> including any personal information provided. Please see the Privacy Act discussion below. We will consider all comments received before the close of business on the comment closing date indicated above. To the extent possible, we will also consider comments filed after the closing date. <E T="03">Docket:</E> For access to the docket to read background documents or comments received, go to <E T="03">http://www.regulations.gov</E> at any time or to 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal Holidays. Telephone: 202-366-9826. <E T="03">Privacy Act:</E> In accordance with 5 U.S.C. 553(c), DOT solicits comments from the public to better inform its decision-making process. DOT posts these comments, without edit, including any personal information the commenter provides, to <E T="03">www.regulations.gov,</E> as described in the system of records notice (DOT/ALL-14 FDMS), which can be reviewed at <E T="03">www.transportation.gov/privacy.</E> In order to facilitate comment tracking and response, we encourage commenters to provide their name, or the name of their organization; however, submission of names is completely optional. Whether or not commenters identify themselves, all timely comments will be fully considered. <E T="03">Confidential Business Information:</E> If you wish to submit any information under a claim of confidentiality, you should submit three copies of your complete submission, including the information you claim to be confidential business information, to the Chief Counsel, NHTSA, at the address given under <E T="02">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT</E> . In addition, you should submit two copies, from which you have deleted the claimed confidential business information, to the Docket at the address given above. When you send a comment containing information claimed to be confidential business information, you should include a cover letter setting forth the information specified in our confidential business information regulation (49 CFR part 512). <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> For technical issues, Ian MacIntire, General Engineer Special Vehicles & Systems Division within the Division of Rulemaking, at (202) 493-0248 or <E T="03">Ian.MacIntire@dot.gov.</E> For legal issues, Paul Connet, Attorney-Advisor, NHTSA Office of Chief Counsel, at (202) 366-5547 or <E T="03">Paul.Connet@dot.gov.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Table of Contents</HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">I. Executive Summary</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">II. Background</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Hydrogen Fueled Vehicles</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">1. Hydrogen as a Motor Fuel</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">2. Hydrogen Vehicle Systems</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Global Technical Regulation (GTR) No. 13</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">1. Overview of the GTR Process</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">2. History of GTR No. 13</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">III. Why is NHTSA issuing this proposal?</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">IV. Overview of Proposed Rules</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. FMVSS No. 308, “Compressed Hydrogen Storage System Integrity”</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">1. Compressed Hydrogen Storage System</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">2. General Requirements for the CHSS</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">3. Performance Requirements for the CHSS</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">4. Tests for Baseline Metrics</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">5. Test for Performance Durability</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">6. Test for Expected On-Road Performance</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">7. Test for Service Terminating Performance in Fire</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">8. Tests for Performance Durability of Closure Devices</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">9. Labeling Requirements</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. FMVSS No. 307, “Fuel System Integrity of Hydrogen Vehicles”</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">1. Fuel System Integrity During Normal Vehicle Operations</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">2. Post-Crash Fuel System Integrity</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. Lead Time</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">V. Rulemaking Analysis and Notices</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">VI. Public Participation</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Executive Summary</HD> Vehicle manufacturers have continued to seek out renewable and clean alternative fuel sources to gasoline and diesel. Compressed hydrogen has emerged as a promising potential alternative because hydrogen is an abundant element in the atmosphere and does not produce tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions when used as a motor fuel. However, hydrogen must be compressed to high-pressures to be an efficient motor fuel, and is also highly flammable, similar to other motor fuels. NHTSA has already set regulations ensuring the safe containment of other motor vehicle fuels such as gasoline in FMVSS No. 301 and compressed natural gas in FMVSS No. 304, and the fuel integrity systems of those systems in FMVSS No. 301 and FMVSS No. 303, respectively. No such standards currently exist in the United States covering vehicles that operate on hydrogen. Accordingly, this document proposes two new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSSs) to address safety concerns relating to storage and use of hydrogen in motor vehicles, and to align the safety regulations of hydrogen vehicles with vehicles that operate using other fuel sources. This proposed rule was developed in concert with efforts to harmonize hydrogen vehicle standards with international partners through the Global Technical Regulation (GTR) process, and if adopted, would harmonize the FMVSSs with GTR No. 13, Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Vehicles. This document proposes the creation of two new safety standards: FMVSS No. 307, “Fuel system integrity of hydrogen vehicles,” and FMVSS No. 308, “Compressed hydrogen storage system integrity.” FMVSS No. 307 would regulate the integrity of the fuel system in hydrogen vehicles during normal vehicle operations and after crashes. To this end, it includes performance requirements for the hydrogen fuel system to mitigate hazards associated with hydrogen leakage and discharge from the fuel system, as well as post-crash restrictions on hydrogen leakage, concentration in enclosed spaces, container displacement, and fire. FMVSS No. 308 would regulate the compressed hydrogen storage system (CHSS) itself, and would primarily include performance requirements that would ensure the CHSS is unlikely to leak or burst during use, as well as requirements intended to ensure that hydrogen is safely expelled from the container when it is exposed to a fire. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 389k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━