Standardization, testing and certification

As part of our economic and legal systems, standards and certification processes lay the foundations for important issues such as occupational safety and environmental protection. They make it possible to combine components to form systems, as well as ensuring quality and compatibility, creating transparency and protecting consumers. Standards and certification are also decisive factors in knowledge and technology transfer. Germany is a pioneer and key driver of standardization in a large number of sectors, from mechanical and plant engineering to energy technology. There are also numerous national and international initiatives aimed at standardizing hydrogen technologies. This chapter gives an overview of existing standards from a variety of fields that relate to hydrogen technologies, and thus also outlines the complexity of this field of technology.