It has come to our attention that some natural gas utilities in North America have begun to blend, or are planning to blend, hydrogen with natural gas for residential and industrial applications. In the interest of public safety, we are compelled to remind our customers and other stakeholders of the following:

• At present, there are no accepted standards in Canada or the US for fuel burning products using mixtures of natural gas and hydrogen, for either residential or industrial applications
• In the absence of accepted standards, CSA Group does not currently offer certification programs for products and appliances that burn a mixture of natural gas and hydrogen
• CSA Group’s current certification programs only apply to products that burn natural gas in accordance with existing accepted standards
• CSA certification of a product is void when it is used outside the parameters of the applicable standards – which would include the use of fuels other than natural gas, such as a mixture of natural gas and hydrogen

CSA Group has been following developments related to the potential use of hydrogen and hydrogen fuel blends in fuel-burning products for many years, and we are currently involved in several research initiatives to study these alternative fuels and their implications. Technical committees within our standards development organization are evaluating potential amendments of the current fuel burning standards to include hydrogen and natural gas mixtures. This evaluation is ongoing and involves a thorough review of supporting evidence.

Research and testing are vital to ensuring that any modifications to the current standards for fuel-burning appliances achieve their core purpose – enabling the safe deployment of products in society. While we are excited by the potential role hydrogen could play in reducing carbon emissions, we feel it is vital that the necessary research and standards development take place before hydrogen-blended fuels are used in products certified solely for natural gas.

It is our hope that, until appropriate standards and certification programs are in place, gas utilities and other suppliers of natural gas will abstain from blending hydrogen with natural gas for use with products only certified for natural gas. We urge utilities, regulatory authorities, certification bodies, and manufacturers of gas appliances to work together to ensure that the use of any mixture of hydrogen and natural gas in natural gas products take place only after the ongoing research is complete, the standards are amended, and products can be certified to the amended standards.

(French version to follow)