Odorant Requirements Among Latest NFPA 58 Revisions

A requirement that the addition of odorant must be documented at the point of odorization is just one of the new provisions that will be included in the 2017 version of NFPA 58, the Liquefied Petroleum Gas Code. Among other changes are new requirements regarding placement of containers no longer connected for use, engineering for snow depth, vehicle barrier protection, and propane containers for hot air balloons. In addition, a new chapter to the document covers LP-gas for over-the-road vehicles.

Eric Nette, staff liaison for the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), will discuss changes in the latest version of NFPA 58 during a fast-track session on April 9 at the National Propane Gas Association (NPGA) Southeastern Convention and International Propane Expo in Nashville, Tenn.

Nette, speaking with BPN in early January, noted that the changes were still not final. Some of the language could still be revised by a motion or by the NFPA standards council. If NFPA hears no motions during its upcoming meeting, the new 2017 version of NFPA 58 will be released on May 13, 2016. If motions are considered, the document will be released in August 2016.

The new version is set to include various changes in the code involving definitions of terms, and although they might not make the most exciting reading, Nette feels they are important for propane marketers to know. The new version of NFPA 58 adds and revises several definitions. It includes a new definition for porta-packs, which are “an ASME container installed on wheels with retractable landing gear that is used to store LP-gas in temporary installations and not used to transport LP-gas.”

Chapter 4 of the new version revises the requirements for odorant. The addition of odorant must now be documented, and sniff testing or other equivalent measures must take place prior to final delivery to the end use customer. Marketers should be on the lookout for the odorant documentation and should perform their own sniff test, said Nette, who also serves as staff liaison for NFPA 59, LP gas for utility power plants, and for several other NFPA codes covering areas such as nuclear energy and industrial trucks.

Also in Chapter 4, NFPA 58 centralizes all portable fire extinguisher requirements. Previously, all of the individual sections included a portable fire extinguisher requirement. Now all the sections refer to the requirements listed in Chapter 4.

“They have to follow NFPA 10, which is our fire extinguisher standard; they have to be a minimum capacity; they have to be a dry chemical with an ABC rating; and they’re now permitted to be less than 1-pound-per-second flow rate,” Nette noted.

Chapter 5, which contains the construction requirements for containers and appliances, includes a requirement that hot air balloon containers must not be used for any other purpose and that they will comply with Federal Aviation Administration regulations.

Nette explained that the new version addresses a gap between where NFPA 58 ended and the FAA regulations took over. As a safety mechanism, excess flow valves turn off the flow of LP-gas if too much is released at once; if you try to release a lot of it at once to power a hot air balloon this valve could engage, which would cut off the LP-gas supply to the burner. If the burner is turned off, it could cause a rapid decrease in altitude for the balloon.

The updated version of NFPA 58 includes new appurtenance requirements for reusable cylinders less than 2 pounds. The change took place after marketers told NFPA of customers asking for refills, but the marketers could not refill the cylinders because they were not covered by NFPA 58. One of the new appurtenance requirements is that cylinders less than 420 lb (except DOT Spec. 39) are required to have a vapor shutoff valve (CGA 555 outlet prohibited) where installed. NFPA previously only required the shutoff valve for cylinders 2 pounds through 420 pounds propane capacity. It has been expanded for all sizes less than 420 pounds.

Chapter 6 of the new version, which covers the installation/location of LP-gas systems, includes two notable location requirements. The first is in effect when someone disconnects a container and connects another in its place. The code now includes location requirements for the disconnected container. NFPA put that requirement into effect after hearing that people would put the old containers on the roof of a structure or another unsafe area.

The new requirement states that an ASME container 4000 gallons or less, removed from service but containing LP-gas, cannot be placed on roofs of buildings.

“There are a couple steps you need to take to make sure it’s in a correct place, one of those being that in a lot of different situations, you can’t put them on roofs of buildings,” Nette stated. “Your valve outlets have to be plugged or capped to make sure they’re not accidentally open or that they’re damaged and start leaking any leftover LP-gas.”

Nette, who worked as an engineer in the fire technology department for the Southwest Research Institute before starting with NFPA in 2014, noted that snow depth requirements are another significant change to NFPA 58. The code now includes a requirement on the amount of pressure that can be placed on piping before it must be protected. Too much pressure can be problematic in mountainous areas, he noted.

“If you have damage to a pipe due to a large amount of snow, a big problem is that you have so much snow around it and it compacts and creates its own kind of pipe around it. If you have that leak into it, it can travel down that threshold, and it can end up indoors. That would be a problem.” For the new version of NFPA 58, NFPA paid for a document from the American Society of Civil Engineers that calculates snow threshold and determines how much snow in an area might create a certain amount of pressure on the pipe or installation.

Moving on to Chapter 8, the new document revises vehicle barrier protection requirements. Companies with cylinders in a lockable ventilated metal enclosure no longer must provide vehicle barrier protection. NFPA used information from a Southwest Research Institute study (available at

) prepared for the National Propane Gas Association, which determined that “Typical cylinder exchange cabinets constructed of either aluminum or steel, anchored or unanchored, and against a building wall or not, are capable of providing comparable or better impact protection for LP-gas cylinders than bollards alone.”

Another change to the new version is that universal cylinders can now be filled horizontally or vertically as long as they are constructed to be filled in either orientation. Previously, they could only be filled in one orientation.

The new 2017 version of NFPA 58 also includes a new chapter to the document, which covers LP-gas for over-the-road vehicles. The new chapter is titled, “Motor Vehicles Intended for Over-the-Road Use or Designed to Transport Passengers and are Fueled by LP-gas.” The chapter is “a big update to what we previously had,” Nette stated. Prior over-the-road vehicle requirements were out of date and had not been addressed in several years. One of these changes is the addition of Annex M, which describes a purging method for LP-gas vehicles for over-the-road use.

“That’s the 10,000-foot view of all the major things I can think of that I saw as big changes,” Nette concluded. “I always suggest viewing the first or second revision report or of course picking up the new 2017 code when it’s available.” —Daryl Lubinsky