
Hydrogen-powered electric vehicles are on the rise. Electrification of powertrains, along with current limitations in battery technology, give rise to hydrogen-powered, fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV), in particular for long-haul transport like trucks, buses and trains. However, one of the challenges for FCEV is to efficiently and safely store hydrogen (H2) in the vehicle.
Hydrogen for FCEV is typically stored in type IV composite pressure vessels. The high operating pressure requires a significant amount of carbon fiber for the vessel. With up to 700 bar nominal pressure, one tank consumes up to 10 kg of carbon fiber for every 1 kg of hydrogen stored. The carbon fibers of a high pressure vessel typically represents more than 50% of the total cost of such storage system.
We at Cevotec have developed an industrial solution to improve the storage efficiency and reduce the amount of carbon fibers by up to 15% while maintaining equivalent mechanical properties.