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Failure Modes and Effects Analysis

Failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) is widely accepted throughout industry as a viable tool for identifying, ranking, and mitigating hazards. And the FMEA process can help design safe hydrogen fueling stations. This page describes the basics about FMEAs.

FMEA is one of many hazard analysis tools used to help manage hazards and their associated risks. Planners use the FMEA process to improve safety by identifying both design and administrative measures to reduce the risk associated with hazards. Performing this analysis early in the design process can reduce the time and cost of delivering a product. And discovering unacceptable safety-related issues during qualification testing or worse yet, during actual operation, can hopefully be avoided by performing an FMEA.

Analysis Requirements for Fueling Stations

The adoption and enforcement of codes and standards in the United States takes place under the jurisdiction of some 44,000 entities. They include city, county, and state governments, as well as special districts such as port and tunnel authorities. Among the various permitting agencies, no consistent regulation exists that requires using an FMEA during the permitting process for fueling facilities. Generally, some form of risk analysis is an accepted practice when it comes to systems that affect public safety.

Process

During the FMEA process, a team of experts identifies the failure modes of components and associated hazards. These failure modes can be ranked by their contribution to risk. That ranking is used to identify areas needing additional control measures to reduce the risk. Unacceptable risks are evaluated to determine measures for minimizing risk. These measures include redesign, reconfiguring or mitigation. Even though the FMEA is an effective analysis method, it has limitations.

Hydrogen Fueling Station Demonstration Tool

To help understand some elements of an FMEA for hydrogen fueling stations, a demonstration tool is provided. This tool allows the user to select systems and components of a hydrogen fueling station, then locate the possible risks, along with mitigation and prevention measures, related to those systems and components. Keep in mind that the tool is for demonstration purposes only; a formal FMEA should be performed by a team of professionals for each specific project, taking into account the specific project design.