Development of 3D Printing-Assisted Type-V Tanks for Compressed Hydrogen Storage with High Operating Pressure

Topic:

Energy Science

Invention Reference Number

202205249

Liners in Type-IV hydrogen storage tanks often fail due to hydrogen saturation, additional weight and design limitations due to expensive tooling for conventional molding technique. This technology is a Type-V hydrogen storage tank with a dissolvable liner, using 3D-printed assisted automated manufacturing that eliminates the need for troublesome liners and offer efficient hydrogen storage.

Description

This is a unique technology of liner-free hydrogen tanks using 3D printing followed by applying a barrier coating on the inner side of the wall of the tank. One of the challenges of hydrogen-fuel technology is that the liner in the tanks often saturated with hydrogen eventually causing failure like buckling, blister, delamination making the tank unusable. This technology addresses those problems by eliminating the liner with additional weight saving. This is a precision-controlled, automated, and high-speed manufacturing method for liner-free 3D printed all composite hydrogen storage tanks which can be operated at a pressure as high as 700 bar. This liner is made of dissolvable polymeric materials as a temporary layer. Further, a coating applied to the inner surface of the tanks minimizes the voids along with increased tortuosity offering a longer life span for the tanks with minimum leakage.