Post by SHARP Composites

The story behind the tubular tank The initial idea for using a tube assembly as on-board storage of hydrogen goes back 13 years and was a result of the COPERNIC project (https://lnkd.in/euuhVY4T), initiated by CEA (France) and financed by Europe within the program of FCH-JU. With a focus on cost reduction, the engineering team of OPTIMUM CPV demonstrated that the simple tubular geometry with aluminium fittings (compared to a traditional type IV tank) required less carbon fibre to store a given quantity of H2 while significantly improving the productivity of filament winding (processing more rovings simultaneously at higher speed). Due to higher gravimetric efficiency and the lack of standards and regulations for such designs, the idea was not pursued… … until 2020, when OPTIMUM CPV (acquired by PLASTIC OMNIUM, now OPmobility) was awarded by the FCH2-JU (now Clean Hydrogen Partnership) for the research project SH2APED (www.sh2aped.eu) specifically focussing on conformable tank systems which fit in the design space of the battery pack, mounted in the floor of the vehicle. As part of the activities, major contributions were made to the GTR13 (phase 2) working group to foresee these architectures in the R134 regulations. Also, the gravimetric efficiency of the storage system became less important than its conformability, which made these tubular architectures attractive to the automotive industry. Today, it has all become reality: reliability and robustness have been demonstrated, confirmed by the certification according to world-wide standards. Production capacity has been installed to meet the requirements of industrial deployment (also co-financed by Europe in the IPCEI initiative). A first vehicle, the BMW iX5 (BMW Group: New BMW iX5 Hydrogen tank system.), will be launched in 2028. The journey took 15 years, from initial idea to industrialized system. Personally, I was involved until 2022 and I always appreciated the support by the European Commission and the persistency of my former employer OPmobility. One last thing: the COPERNIC project from 2013 also demonstrated the efficiency of spherical tanks, with a huge potential regarding flexibility and scalability. At SHARP Composites, we are currently working on these architectures with very encouraging ideas involving applications in mobility, transportation and stationary storage.