08/17/2023
Source: Energy & Management Powernews
The Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing is working with partners on H2 pressure vessels with a lower CO2 footprint. Helping is about to save material in manufacturing.
As fuel tanks, hydrogen pressure vessels play a role in zero-emission trucks, buses, trains, container ships and aircraft. They are also used in the storage and transportation of hydrogen, such as to refueling stations. They are made of carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, or CFRP for short, which are energy-intensive to manufacture. According to the Berlin-based Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM), the production of a latest-generation pressure vessel made of CFRP generates up to 2.5 metric tons of CO2.
A new project coordinated by the RWTH Aachen University aims to significantly improve the CO2 balance of pressure vessels. BAM and unnamed industrial partners are involved. The project starts at two points:
- First, the cost-intensive lightweight material CFRP is to be used more efficiently than before. Eric Duffner, storage expert responsible for BAM's participation in the project, explains: "Currently, the containers, which have to withstand pressures of up to more than 700 bar during operation, are designed particularly conservatively for safety reasons. That means a lot of material is used." However, long-term studies indicated that the material could be used more sparingly. Through consistent digital process monitoring during production, the research partners want to ensure that the storage units are manufactured more efficiently, i.e., using only as much CFRP material as necessary. "We assume in the project that (...) around 20 percent of the material can be saved and at the same time even safer memories can be produced than before," says Duffner.
- The second approach targets the lifetime of the memories, i.e. the period over which they can be used concretely. Here, too, BAM assumes that the storage units could remain in operation much longer than before. In this context, it refers to its own investigations into mechanical and thermal loads.
BAM is contributing its findings from non-destructive testing methods to the project. This should put current safety assessments and assumptions about service life on a better empirical basis. This, too, will help save resources, it says: Should the storage systems be able to be used for around ten years longer in the future than they have been to date, this would mean - in addition to the material savings in production - a considerable reduction in their CO2 footprint.
The scientific results of the project are to be incorporated into the standards and laws on hydrogen pressure storage systems, it is further stated. The overall project is being funded by the "Lightweight Construction" technology transfer program of the German Federal Ministry of Economics.
Author: Davina Spohn
Accessibility
Language
