Hydrogen quality issues

Between 2011 and 2014, the EU funded and ran a project on Hydrogen Fuel Quality Requirements for transportation and other energy applications. The project provided several conclusions about the impurities in hydrogen.

Moreover, the EU standard for hydrogen quality, the European Standardization Committee’s standard EN 17124 Hydrogen fuel — Product specification and quality assurance — Proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell applications for road vehicles, indicates the potential effect of impurities in hydrogen in more detail.

The table below summarizes the potential impurities in hydrogen and their effect on hydrogen cells and their performance.