National foreword

This British Standard is the UK implementation of ISO 14687:2025. It supersedes BS ISO 14687:2019, which is withdrawn.

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee PVE/3/8, Gas containers - Hydrogen technologies.

A list of organizations represented on this committee can be obtained on request to its committee manager.

Contractual and legal considerations

This publication has been prepared in good faith, however no representation, warranty, assurance or undertaking (express or implied) is or will be made, and no responsibility or liability is or will be accepted by BSI in relation to the adequacy, accuracy, completeness or reasonableness of this publication. All and any such responsibility and liability is expressly disclaimed to the full extent permitted by the law.

This publication is provided as is, and is to be used at the recipient’s own risk.

The recipient is advised to consider seeking professional guidance with respect to its use of this publication.

This publication is not intended to constitute a contract. Users are responsible for its correct application.

Compliance with a British Standard cannot confer immunity from legal obligations.

This British Standard was published under the authority of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee on 28 February 2025.

Foreword

ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work. ISO collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of electrotechnical standardization.

The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular, the different approval criteria needed for the different types of ISO document should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives).

ISO draws attention to the possibility that the implementation of this document may involve the use of (a) patent(s). ISO takes no position concerning the evidence, validity or applicability of any claimed patent rights in respect thereof. As of the date of publication of this document, ISO had not received notice of (a) patent(s) which may be required to implement this document. However, implementers are cautioned that this may not represent the latest information, which may be obtained from the patent database available at www.iso.org/patents. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not constitute an endorsement.

For an explanation of the voluntary nature of standards, the meaning of ISO specific terms and expressions related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO's adherence to the World Trade Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), see www.iso.org/iso/foreword.html.

This document was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 197, Hydrogen technologies.

This second edition cancels and replaces the first edition (ISO 14687:2019), which has been technically revised.

The main changes are as follows:

a new Grade of hydrogen quality for internal combustion engine (Grade F) applications has been added in Informative Annex F;
rationale for each Grade D specification has been moved from ISO19880‑8 to this document;
each specification for each Grade has been modified reflecting recent research work and change in industrial needs.

Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A complete listing of these bodies can be found at www.iso.org/members.html.

Introduction

In recent years, the landscape for using hydrogen as a fuel has changed significantly in response to its potential to contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. This shift is influenced by challenges on both the hydrogen supply side, such as production technologies and supply chain infrastructure, and also the hydrogen energy usage side, including advancements in fuel cell and combustion technology. To address these changing conditions, the hydrogen fuel specifications in this document have been updated.

The hydrogen fuel specifications for proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell applications in this document are primarily based on research, development and data on the following items ^[²^][³^][⁴^][⁵^][⁶^][⁷^][⁸^][⁹^][¹⁰^][¹¹^][¹²^][¹³^][¹⁴^]:

PEM fuel cell catalyst and fuel cell tolerance to hydrogen fuel impurities;
effects/mechanisms of impurities on fuel cell power systems and components;
impurity detection and measurement techniques for laboratory, production and in-field operations;
fuel cell vehicle demonstration and stationary fuel cell demonstration results.

Grade D and grade E in this document are intended to apply to PEM fuel cells for road vehicles and stationary appliances, respectively. These aim to facilitate the provision of hydrogen of reliable quality balanced with acceptable lower cost for the hydrogen fuel supply.

In addition, Grades F-1 and F-2 are newly specified in this edition to apply to hydrogen internal combustion engines for use in vehicular and stationary applications, respectively. The new Grades were placed in an informative annex (Annex F) to allow experience to be gained with this fuel quality prior to inclusion in the normative text.

While this document reflects the state-of-the-art at the date of its publication, the rapid development of quality requirements for hydrogen technology applications would necessitate future revisions in response to technological progress.

1 Scope

This document specifies the minimum quality characteristics of hydrogen fuel as distributed for utilization in residential, commercial, industrial, vehicular and stationary applications.

This document is applicable to hydrogen fuelling applications, which are listed in Table 2.

2 Normative references

3 Terms, definitions and abbreviations

3.1 Terms and definitions

3.2 Abbreviated terms

4 Classification and application

4.1 Classification

4.2 Application

5 Hydrogen quality requirements for PEM fuel cell road vehicle application

5.1 Fuel quality specification

5.2 Analytical method

5.3 Sampling

5.4 Hydrogen quality control

6 Hydrogen and hydrogen-based fuel, quality requirements for PEM fuel cell stationary applications

6.1 Fuel quality specification

6.2 Quality verification

6.3 Sampling

7 Hydrogen quality requirements for applications other than PEM fuel cell road vehicle and stationary applications

7.1 Fuel quality specification

7.2 Quality verification

7.3 Sampling

Bibliography

BS ISO 14687:2025

Hydrogen fuel quality. Product specification

Current

Published:

28 Feb 2025