As hydrogen continues to gain momentum as a key part of the global energy transition, safety remains central to its success. Leading that effort is AIChE's Center for Hydrogen Safety (CHS), a global, non-profit community dedicated to advancing hydrogen safety and best practices worldwide.
A key part of that work is the Hydrogen Safety Panel, a group of experts who identify risks, share lessons learned, and guide safer hydrogen projects across the industry.
In this series, we're highlighting members of the Hydrogen Safety Panel and the experiences that shape their work.
We begin with Aaron Harris, Group Leader of Hydrogen Services at AcuTech and the first chair of the CHS managing board. With a career shaped by military experience and decades of work in hydrogen and fuel cell technologies, Aaron brings a perspective grounded in both urgency and collaboration.
Can you take us back to what first sparked your interest in hydrogen and how your journey began?
My journey into hydrogen began during my time in the U.S. Marine Corps, where I saw firsthand the risks tied to the U.S. energy supply chain. That experience pushed me to pursue a career focused on reducing those risks through alternative fuels. I used my military educational benefits to study engineering, but even earlier, while deployed in the Persian Gulf in 1996, I was already thinking about what might be possible.
At the University of Washington, I worked on a capstone design project in hydrogen and fuel cell technology, which later led to a published journal article. I decided to stay on for my master’s degree, but graduated into a tough job market. At one point, I sent over 100 applications in just five days while trying to figure out my next move. About a month later, I received an offer from Nuvera and drove from Seattle to Boston in the middle of winter to start the role, marking the true beginning of my career in hydrogen.
As the first chair of the CHS managing board, what was your vision in those early days, and how have you seen it evolve?
In my early days as an engineer and corporate safety manager, I benefited from a strong hydrogen safety community. From 2005 to 2013, as the early forklift market faced challenges, industry, academia, and government worked together to share problems and develop creative solutions.
That collaborative safety culture is what we set out to preserve when CHS was formed, and it remains at the heart of what we do. As the community has grown, so have its needs, raising important questions for the managing board and membership. I’m excited to help address these questions and grateful to David Moore and AcuTech for supporting this shared vision for CHS’s future.
As a member of the Hydrogen Safety Panel, what does the panel's work look like in practice, and how does it support safer hydrogen projects?
The HSP is a group of experts who objectively address ongoing issues facing the broader community. These challenges, such as delayed ignition of hydrogen releases, may be scientific or focused on clarifying best practices. The HSP develops guidance through task groups, publishes white papers, and shares findings at conferences and webinars. It also establishes best practices and communicates them through H2Tools, while providing direct project support.
Experience from these projects often informs future white paper topics, creating a continuous improvement cycle focused on practical safety applications. HSP members also connect this work with other improvement cycles, including pre-normative research, codes and standards development, and local code adoption, serving as a critical link in advancing hydrogen safety.
As the hydrogen industry continues to grow, what are the most important safety considerations organizations should keep in mind?
Organizations need to remember the chain and the virtuous cycles of continuous improvement. The CHS and HSP play vital roles in the safety of the hydrogen community. If the CHS and HSP link in the chain fails, it means:
- Pre-normative researchers often discover critical insights that never reach the front-line engineers and plant managers who need them most.
- When codes and standards interpretations (RAGAGEP) conflict, resolution drags on without a community to spotlight and address these issues.
- Without consistent hydrogen safety training and recognized best practices, teams waste time on technical arguments, delay projects, and make avoidable design mistakes.
