Like gasoline distribution stations, legal metrology regulations have required since December 2020 the annual verification of the accuracy of the mass of hydrogen distributed to vehicles. Cesame-Exadébit has put into service the first mobile means of checking hydrogen distribution stations available in France.
A reference gas flow measurement laboratory, the company Cesame-Exadébit is associated with the National Metrology and Testing Laboratory (LNE) as holder of the national standard for this discipline.
Recognized for its expertise in the field of calibration of natural gas meters under pressure and valve testing, it participates in European metrology research programs (Euramet). She has worked in particular in the field of hydrogen flow measurement since 2017: fuel cell, decarbonization of the natural gas network by injection of hydrogen, liquid hydrogen. The company has completely designed a test means called HRSmpr (for Hydrogen Refuelling Stations mobile primary reference) which is assembled in-house.
Reliable Hydrogen Metering
The objective is to ensure the consumer a fair transaction, that is to say to validate that the few kilograms of hydrogen (4 kg for a car) which will be sold to him to refuel his vehicle will indeed be delivered to him at 2 % close. With a view to the deployment of 1,000 hydrogen stations in France by 2030, according to France Hydrogène, the HRSmpr responds to this specific and complex problem: the counting of hydrogen, distributed in gaseous form at a pressure of up to 700 bars . Its principle is based on the weighing of a carbon fiber tank similar to that of a vehicle, the only “primary” metrology method (i.e. linked to national standards) currently usable in this situation. The challenge is to measure in the field, in any weather conditions and with an accuracy of around 5 grams, the mass of hydrogen loaded in the mentioned tank, which, with its support and equipment, weighs a few hundred kilograms. A challenge taken up by Cesame-Exadébit.
Caption of the photo above: Validation tests carried out at the Sorigny station (37), with the kind collaboration of the Communauté de Communes Touraine Vallée de l’Indre and the McPhy company.
