New ISO Standards Published for CNG and LNG Fueling Stations

In December, ISO published two international standards that will play an important role in the deployment of the alternative fuels infrastructure. The publication of ISO 16923 and ISO 16924 enables parties to apply broadly supported requirements for the design, construction, operation, maintenance and inspection of CNG and LNG fueling stations.

A large group of experts from various countries across the world has worked on these ISO standards during the past years. All interested parties had the opportunity to provide comments during two public enquiries. ISO 16923 and ISO 16924 provide practical tools for industry and authorities to further develop the infrastructure for natural gas fuel.

The European Commission published the Directive on the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure (2014/94/EU) in 2014. This Directive refers to technical specifications for this infrastructure that should be established in European standards with respect to interoperability aspects. For this reason, the European Commission has requested the European organizations for standardization—CEN and CENELEC—to develop these standards including CNG and LNG fueling stations.

European stakeholders have indicated that ISO 16923 and ISO 16924 will be adequate to be adopted as European standard, and with that as national standard in the 34 countries that are member of CEN. This adoption process will be initiated in 2017.