151. The representative from the United States of America updated AC.3 on the latest progress made by the IWG with respect to the on-going development of Phase 2 to UN GTR No. 13. He informed AC.3 that the IWG on UN GTR No. 13 and its Task Forces had been meeting regularly, almost bi-weekly in some cases, with the last meeting of the IWG took place on 12 October 2021, as the time of the submission of the technical draft was quickly approaching. He explained that the IWG experts represented governments, industry and academia of Asia, Europe and North America and that scheduling meetings accommodating the different time zones had been challenging. He stated that the IWG was working intensively to have a solid draft reflecting all the technical amendments completed by the time of the upcoming December 2021 session of GRSP. Moreover, he gave a preview of the items considered under the Phase 2, based on the feedback from Contracting Parties and the industry, that resulted in several important amendments, improvements to the UN GTR No. 13:

1. To expand the scope of the UN GTR No. 13 to Heavy-duty vehicles and consider expanding the service life of the container;
2. To consider and address concerns with the refuelling of pressurized hydrogen, including the receptacle requirements to prevent freezing, for example;
3. To review and update several of the test requirements to, amongst others accommodate the new hydrogen container conformable tank design; and to consider burst pressure requirements;
4. To review and update the fire test to make it more objective and reproducible;
5. To consider concerns with material compatibility and the “Humid Gas Stress Corrosion Cracking” phenomenon.

152. He finally concluded that the IWG was still evaluating how to best fully address Service life extension and number of cycles, thermally-activated pressure relief device (TPRD), venting direction, and the sled test as well as side impact test that would need to be dealt with in the next phase.