ISO 19881:2025

International
Standard
ISO 19881
Second edition
Gaseous hydrogen — Land vehicle
2025-06
fuel containers
Hydrogène gazeux — Réservoirs de carburant pour véhicules
terrestres
Reference number
All rights reserved.
ISO publications, in their entirety or in fragments, are owned by ISO. They are licensed, not sold, and are subject to the
terms and conditions set forth in the ISO End Customer License Agreement, the License Agreement of the relevant ISO
member body, or those of authorized third-party distributors.
Unless otherwise specified or required for its implementation, no part of this ISO publication may be reproduced,
distributed, modified, or used in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, scanning,
recording, or posting on any intranet, internet, or other digital platforms, without the prior written permission of ISO,
the relevant ISO member body or an authorized third-party distributor.
This publication shall not be disclosed to third parties, and its use is strictly limited to the license type and purpose
specified in the applicable license grant. Unauthorized reproduction, distribution, or use beyond the granted license is
prohibited and may result in legal action.
ISO copyright office
CP 401 • Ch. de Blandonnet 8
CH-1214 Vernier, Geneva
Phone: +41 22 749 01 11
Email: copyright@iso.org
Website: www.iso.org
Published in Switzerland
Licensing and use terms
As stated above, ISO documents, as well as any updates and/or corrections, and any intellectual property or
other rights pertaining thereto, are owned by ISO. ISO documents are licensed, not sold. This document does
not in any way operate to assign or transfer any intellectual property rights from ISO to the user. ISO
documents are protected by copyright law, database law, trademark law, unfair competition law, trade secrecy
law, and any other applicable law. Users acknowledge and agree to respect ISO’s intellectual property rights
in the ISO documents.
The use of ISO documents is subject to the terms and conditions of the applicable licence agreement.
ISO documents are provided under different licensing agreement types (“Licence Type”) allowing a non-
exclusive, non-transferable, limited, revocable right to use/access the ISO documents for one or more of the
purposes described below (“Purpose”), which may be internal or external in scope. The applicable Purpose(s)
must be agreed in the purchase order and/or in the applicable licence agreement.
a) Licence Type:
1) Single registered end-user licence (watermarked in the user’s name) for the specified Purpose. Under
this license, the user cannot share the ISO document with a third party, including on a network.
2) Network licence for the specified Purpose. The network licence can be assigned to either unnamed
concurrent end-users or named concurrent end-users within the same organization.
ii
b) Purpose:
1) Internal Purpose. Internal use only within the user’s organization, including but not limited to own
implementation (“Internal Purpose”).
The scope of permitted internal use is specified at the time of purchase or through subsequent
agreement with ISO, the ISO member body in the user’s country, any other ISO member body or an
authorized third-party distributor, including any applicable internal use rights (such as for internal
meetings, internal training programmes, preparation of certification services, for integration or
illustration in internal manuals, internal training materials, and internal guidance documents). Each
internal use must be explicitly specified in the purchase order and/or in the applicable licence
agreement, and specific fees and requirements apply to each permitted use.
2) External Purpose. External use, including but not limited to:
— testing services;
— inspection services;
— certification services;
— auditing services;
— consulting services;
— conformity assessment scheme development and implementation;
— training services;
— education;
— research;
— software development and other digital platform or software-enabled digital services;
— any other services or activities conducted by the user or the user’s organization to third parties,
whether for commercial or non-commercial purposes (“External Purpose”).
The scope of permitted external use is specified at the time of purchase or through subsequent
agreement with ISO, the ISO member body in the user’s country, any other ISO member body or an
authorized third-party distributor, including any applicable external use rights (e.g. in publications,
products, or services marketed and sold by the user/the user’s organization). Each external use must
be explicitly specified in the purchase order and/or in the applicable licence agreement, and specific
fees and requirements apply to each permitted use.
Unless users have been granted use rights according to the above provisions, they are not granted the right to
share or sublicense ISO documents inside or outside their organization for either Purpose. If users wish to
obtain additional use rights for ISO documents or their content, users can contact ISO or the ISO member body
in their country to explore possible options.
If the user or the user’s organization is granted a licence for the External Purpose of providing any of the
following services to third parties:
— testing services;
— inspection services;
ii(bis)
— certification services;
— auditing services;
— consulting services,
and if any of these five (5) services reference, rely upon, incorporate, or otherwise make use of any aspect,
requirement, provision, or any other information of any ISO document, the user or the user’s organization
agrees to verify that the third party receiving such services has obtained from the ISO member body in their
country, any other ISO member body, ISO or an authorized third-party distributor, a valid licence for its own
implementation of such ISO document or other use related to such services. This verification obligation must
be included in the applicable licence agreement obtained by the user or the user’s organization.
ISO documents must not be disclosed to third parties, and users must use them solely for the purpose specified
in the purchase order and/or applicable licensing agreement. Unauthorized disclosure or use of ISO
documents beyond the licensed purpose is prohibited and can result in legal action.
Use restrictions
Except as provided for in the applicable licence agreement and subject to a separate licence by ISO, the ISO
member body in the user’s country, any other ISO member body or an authorized third-party distributor, users
are not granted the right to:
— use ISO documents for any purpose other than the Purpose;
— grant use or access rights to ISO documents beyond the Licence Type;
— disclose ISO documents beyond the intended Purpose and/or Licence Type;
— sell, lend, lease, reproduce, distribute, import/export or otherwise commercially exploit ISO documents.
In the case of documents that are joint publications (such as ISO/IEC documents), this clause applies to
the respective joint copyright ownership;
— assign or otherwise transfer ownership of ISO documents, in whole or in part, to any third party.
Regardless of the Licence Type or Purpose for which users are granted access and use rights for ISO
documents, users are not permitted to access or use any ISO documents, in whole or in part, for any machine
learning and/or artificial intelligence and/or similar purposes, including but not limited to accessing or using
them
a) as training data for large language or similar models, or
b) for prompting or otherwise enabling artificial intelligence or similar tools to generate responses.
Such use is only permitted if expressly authorized through a specific licence agreement by the ISO member
body in the requester’s country, another ISO member body, or ISO. Requests for such authorization are
considered on a case-by-case basis to ensure compliance with intellectual property rights. Specifically, it is not
possible to claim the benefit of copyright exception of Article 4 of the Directive (EU) 2019/790 of the European
Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market, for
the purpose of text and data mining on ISO documents, as ISO hereby opts out of this exception.
If ISO, or the ISO member body in the user’s country, has reasonable doubt that users are not compliant with
these terms, it can request in writing to perform an audit, or have an audit performed by a third-party auditor,
during business hours at the user’s premises or via remote access.
ii(ter)
Contents Page
Foreword .vi
Introduction .vii
1 Scope . 1
2 Normative references . 1
3 Terms and definitions . 2
4 Service conditions . 6
4.1 General .6
4.1.1 Standard service conditions .6
4.1.2 Container category .6
4.1.3 Service life .6
4.1.4 Periodic in-service inspections .6
4.2 Pressures .6
4.2.1 Nominal working pressures .6
4.2.2 Maximum pressures . .6
4.3 Maximum number of filling cycles . .7
4.4 Temperature range .7
4.4.1 Settled gas temperatures .7
4.4.2 Container temperatures .7
4.4.3 Extreme gas temperatures .7
4.4.4 Test temperatures .7
4.5 Gas composition .7
4.6 External surfaces .8
4.7 Installation requirements .8
5 Conformance . 8
6 Material qualification tests and requirements . 8
6.1 General .8
6.2 Material requirements.9
6.3 Metal containers and metal liners .9
6.3.1 Material properties .9
6.3.2 Impact test for steel .9
6.3.3 Tensile tests for metals .10
6.3.4 Sustained load cracking (SLC) test for aluminium alloys .10
6.3.5 Corrosion tests for aluminium alloys .10
6.4 Ultraviolet resistance of external coatings .10
6.5 Fibres . .10
6.6 Resins .10
6.7 Nonmetallic liners (Type 4) .10
6.8 Bosses for Type 4 containers .11
7 Wall thickness.11
7.1 Type 1 containers .11
7.2 Liners for Type 2, Type 3, and Type 4 containers .11
7.3 Composite reinforcement for Type 2, Type 3, and Type 4 containers .11
7.3.1 Stress analysis .11
7.3.2 Composite reinforcement stress ratios .11
7.3.3 Modified stress ratio test. 12
7.3.4 Hybrid designs . 12
7.4 External loads on containers . 12
8 Threaded openings .12
9 Manufacture .12
9.1 General . 12
9.2 Metal containers and metal liners . 12

iii
9.3 Nonmetallic liners . 13
9.4 Composite containers with metallic liners . 13
9.5 Composite containers with nonmetallic liners . 13
9.6 Brazing . 13
9.7 Welding . . 13
9.8 End closing by forming .14
9.9 Mounting and protection.14
9.10 Batch definitions .14
9.11 Design qualification tests .14
10 Production tests and examinations. 14
10.1 General .14
10.2 Hydrostatic proof and volumetric expansion test . 15
10.3 Leak test .16
11 Batch tests . .16
11.1 General .16
11.2 Batch material tests .16
11.3 Coated containers .16
11.4 Burst test .17
11.4.1 Batch burst test .17
11.4.2 Periodic burst test .17
11.5 Ambient cycle test.17
11.5.1 Batch cycle test .17
11.5.2 Periodic pressure cycling test .18
12 Rejected containers and liners .18
12.1 Physical test .18
12.2 Leak test .19
12.3 Hydrostatic proof and volumetric expansion test .19
12.4 Ambient cycle test.19
12.5 Burst test .19
13 Thermally-activated pressure relief devices . 19
14 Records of manufacture . 19
15 Marking and dispatch . 19
15.1 Markings .19
15.1.1 General .19
15.1.2 Marking information . 20
15.2 Dispatch inspection . . 20
16 Quality assurance .20
17 Design qualification tests .20
17.1 General . 20
17.2 Test requirements.21
17.3 Category A, B and C: design qualification tests . 22
17.3.1 Test requirements . 22
17.3.2 Ambient cycling test . 22
17.3.3 Environmental test . 23
17.3.4 Extreme temperature cycling test .24
17.3.5 Hydrostatic burst test . 25
17.3.6 Flaw tolerance test . 25
17.3.7 Drop test .27
17.3.8 Fire test . 28
17.3.9 High temperature pressure static test . 35
17.3.10 High strain rate impact test . 35
17.3.11 Permeation test . 35
17.3.12 Boss torque test . 36
17.3.13 Hydrogen gas cycling test . 36
17.3.14 Leak before break test .37

iv
17.4 Change of design . 38
17.5 Category B: design qualification tests .41
17.5.1 General test requirements .41
17.5.2 Ambient cycling test .41
17.5.3 Hydrostatic burst test .41
17.5.4 Container test for performance durability .41
17.5.5 Container test for expected on-road performance .43
17.6 Category C: design qualification conditions and limitations .43
17.6.1 Marking information .43
17.6.2 Material tests for steel containers and liners .43
17.6.3 Material tests for aluminium alloy containers and liners .43
17.7 Qualification test results . 44
Annex A (normative) Visual inspection .45
Annex B (normative) Non-destructive examination .46
Annex C (normative) Records of manufacture .48
Annex D (normative) Pre-test checkout of burner .54
Annex E (informative) Design qualification test rationale .60
Bibliography .84

v
Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards
bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out through
ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical committee
has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International organizations,
governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work. ISO collaborates closely
with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of electrotechnical standardization.
The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are described
in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular, the different approval criteria needed for the different types
of ISO document should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the editorial rules of the
ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives).
ISO draws attention to the possibility that the implementation of this document may involve the use of (a)
patent(s). ISO takes no position concerning the evidence, validity or applicability of any claimed patent
rights in respect thereof. As of the date of publication of this document, ISO had not received notice of (a)
patent(s) which may be required to implement this document. However, implementers are cautioned that
this may not represent the latest information, which may be obtained from the patent database available at
www.iso.org/patents. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not
constitute an endorsement.
For an explanation of the voluntary nature of standards, the meaning of ISO specific terms and expressions
related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO's adherence to the World Trade
Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), see www.iso.org/iso/foreword.html.
This document was prepared by Technical Committee TC 197, Hydrogen technologies.
This second edition cancels and replaces the first edition (ISO 19881:2018), which has been technically
revised.
The main changes are as follows:
— harmonization with UN GTR 13 Phase 2 with focused modifications to the fire test;
— fire test pre-test conditions included as Annex material.
Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A
complete listing of these bodies can be found at www.iso.org/members.html.

vi
Introduction
The purpose of this document is to promote the implementation of hydrogen powered land vehicles through
the creation of performance-based testing requirements for compressed hydrogen fuel containers. The
successful commercialization of hydrogen land vehicle technologies requires standards pertaining to
fuelling stations, vehicle fuel system components and the global homologation of standards requirements
for technologies with the same end use. This will allow manufacturers to achieve economies of scale in
production through the ability to manufacture one product for global use.
This document is based on the CSA Standard ANSI/HGV 2-2014 and UN GTR No. 13.

vii
International Standard ISO 19881:2025(en)
Gaseous hydrogen — Land vehicle fuel containers
1 Scope
This document specifies requirements for the material, design, manufacture, marking and testing of serially
produced, refillable containers intended only for the storage of compressed hydrogen gas for land vehicle
operation. These containers:
a) are permanently attached to the vehicle;
b) have a capacity of up to 1 000 l water capacity;
c) have a nominal working pressure that does not exceed 70 MPa.
This document is applicable only to fuel containers containing gaseous hydrogen according to ISO 14687
for fuel cell and internal combustion engine land vehicles. This document specifies requirements for
hydrogen fuel containers acceptable for use on-board the following types of land vehicles: light-duty
vehicles, heavy-duty vehicles and industrial powered trucks, such as forklifts and other material handling
vehicles. Requirements for other types of land vehicles such as rail, off-road, etc., can be derived with due
consideration of appropriate service conditions.
2 Normative references
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content constitutes
requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For undated references,
the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
ISO 148-1, Metallic materials — Charpy pendulum impact test — Part 1: Test method
ISO 306, Plastics — Thermoplastic materials — Determination of Vicat softening temperature (VST)
ISO 7866:2012, Gas cylinders — Refillable seamless aluminium alloy gas cylinders — Design, construction and testing
ISO 9809-1:2019, Gas cylinders — Design, construction and testing of refillable seamless steel gas cylinders and
tubes — Part 1: Quenched and tempered steel cylinders and tubes with tensile strength less than 1 100 MPa
ISO 9809-2:2019, Gas cylinders — Design, construction and testing of refillable seamless steel gas cylinders and
tubes — Part 2: Quenched and tempered steel cylinders and tubes with tensile strength greater than or equal to
1 100 MPa
ISO 11363-1, Gas cylinders — 17E and 25E taper threads for connection of valves to gas cylinders — Part 1:
Specifications
ISO 11439:2013, Gas cylinders — High pressure cylinders for the on-board storage of natural gas as a fuel for
automotive vehicles
ISO 11926-1, Connections for general use and fluid power — Ports and stud ends with ISO 725 threads and
O-ring sealing — Part 1: Ports with O-ring seal in truncated housing
ISO 19882, Gaseous hydrogen — Thermally activated pressure relief devices for compressed hydrogen vehicle
fuel containers
ASTM D638, Standard Test Method for Tensile Properties of Plastics
ASTM D2344/D2344M, Standard Test Method for Short-Beam Strength of Polymer Matrix Composite Materials
and Their Laminates
ASTM D3359, Standard Test Methods for Rating Adhesion by Tape Test
ASTM D3418, Standard Test Method for Transition Temperatures and Enthalpies of Fusion and Crystallization of
Polymers by Differential Scanning Calorimetry
ASTM D4138, Standard Practices for Measurement of Dry Film Thickness of Protective Coating Systems by
Destructive, Cross Sectioning Means
ASTM D7091, Standard Practice for Nondestructive Measurement of Dry Film Thickness of Nonmagnetic
Coatings Applied to Ferrous Metals and Nonmagnetic, Nonconductive Coatings Applied to Non-Ferrous Metals
ASTM E8/E8M, Standard Test Methods for Tension Testing of Metallic Materials
ASTM E23, Standard Test Methods for Notched Bar Impact Testing of Metallic Materials
ASTM G154, Standard Practice for Operating Fluorescent Ultraviolet (UV) Lamp Apparatus for Exposure of
Materials
CGA C-1-2009, Methods for Pressure Testing Compressed Gas Cylinders and Tubes
ECE/TRANS/180/Add.13/Amend.1 UN GTR No. 13, UN Global Technical Regulation on Hydrogen and Fuel
Cell Vehicles
SAE J2579, Standard for Fuel Systems in Fuel Cell and Other Hydrogen Vehicles
SAE J2601, Fueling Protocols for Light Duty Gaseous Hydrogen Surface Vehicles
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminology databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:
— ISO Online browsing platform: available at https:// www .iso .org/ obp
— IEC Electropedia: available at https:// www .electropedia .org/
3.1
autofrettage
pressure application procedure, used in manufacturing composite containers with metal liners (3.15), which
strains the liner (3.15) past its yield point sufficiently to cause permanent plastic deformation that results in
the liner (3.15) having residual compressive stresses and the fibres having residual tensile stresses at zero
internal pressure
3.2
burst pressure
highest pressure reached in a container during a burst test
3.3
composite
filament and resin system
3.4
compressed hydrogen storage system
CHSS
system designed to store compressed hydrogen fuel for a hydrogen-fuelled vehicle, composed of a container,
container attachments (if any), and all primary closure devices required to isolate the stored hydrogen from
the remainder of the fuel system and the environment
3.5
container category
unique class of containers that are intended for a specific usage

3.5.1
Category A
class of containers that are intended to be used in light-duty and heavy-duty land vehicle applications,
regardless of the potential for further qualification to the UN GTR No. 13 for hydrogen and fuel cell vehicles
3.5.2
Category B
class of containers of 70 MPa nominal working pressure that are intended to be further qualified in
accordance with the UN GTR No. 13 for hydrogen and fuel cell vehicles
3.5.3
Category C
class of containers that are intended to be used on hydrogen powered industrial trucks
Note 1 to entry: For examples of industrial trucks, see ISO 5053-1.
Note 2 to entry: Requirements for fuel cell power systems for electrically powered industrial trucks, where Category C
containers can be used, can be found in IEC 62282-4-101.
3.5.4
container
pressure-bearing component on the vehicle that stores the primary volume of hydrogen fuel in a single
chamber or in multiple permanently interconnected chambers
3.5.5
container attachments
non-pressure bearing parts attached to the container that provide additional support and/or protection to
the container and that may be only temporarily removed for maintenance and/or inspection only with the
use of tools
3.6
container type
classification of container design as a function of its constituent parts
3.6.1
Type 1
metal container
3.6.2
Type 2
container which contains a metal liner (3.15) reinforced with a resin impregnated continuous filament
(hoop-wrapped (3.12))
Note 1 to entry: See 3.12.
3.6.3
Type 3
container which contains a meta
...