New York – October 12, 2026 -- The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has mapped more than 500 published hydrogen standards and concluded that deployment is often held back not by missing standards but by difficulty in implementing and applying them. The finding comes from a new report, "Advancing Hydrogen Standards and Codes," and a companion document, the Hydrogen Standards Landscape.
The report summarizes ANSI's hydrogen standards workshop, held June 22-23, 2026, in Washington, DC. It was the latest activity of the Hydrogen Standards Coordination Initiative. Participants came from industry, government, standards development organizations (SDOs), conformity assessment bodies, research institutions and end-user communities.
Report identifies four implementation challenges for hydrogen deployment
The first is limited familiarity with requirements. Authorities having jurisdiction, inspectors, emergency responders and permitting officials may have little exposure to hydrogen technologies and the related consensus standards. Participants backed direct engagement, implementation guidance, and standards education and training to make deployment more consistent and less uncertain.
The second is workforce readiness. Participants cautioned that hydrogen deployment could outpace the supply of qualified personnel if workforce development does not keep up.
The third is operational experience and data. Participants called sharing reliability, performance, safety and deployment data critical to standards, conformity assessment, permitting decisions and validation of emerging technologies.
The fourth is coordination and alignment. Stakeholders asked for better visibility into ongoing standards work, less fragmentation, stronger information-sharing, and better harmonization among standards developers, regulators, industry sectors and international activities.
Participants back a storage and infrastructure roadmap over new frameworks
Participants generally favored building on existing standards and technical knowledge rather than creating entirely new frameworks. A hydrogen standards roadmap for storage and infrastructure drew particularly strong support. Participants said it would organize priorities, identify standards and research gaps, and coordinate work across the ecosystem, since these areas are critical to all end-use applications. They also called for better standards navigation tools, expanded educational resources, and greater awareness of existing standards and certification pathways.
"This report and landscape are just the beginning," said Christine Bernat, director of standards facilitation at ANSI, who invited stakeholders to influence how the priorities are turned into progress.
Landscape document covers the full hydrogen value chain
The Hydrogen Standards Landscape covers over 500 published standards, efforts underway at SDOs, and related guidance and regulatory documents. It spans production, storage, carbon capture, transportation, utilization and related infrastructure. ANSI plans to migrate it into an online database and update it periodically as standards work is reported to the institute. March 2026 webinars give stakeholders snapshots of several SDO portfolios.
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) hosted the workshop. Diamond sponsors were ASME, ASTM International, the Compressed Gas Association and CSA Group. Gold sponsors were the International Code Council, the Association for Materials Protection and Performance, and SAE International. ANSI is asking stakeholders to tell it what priorities should come next.