Hydrogen storage systems for passenger cars

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Hydrogen storage systems for passenger cars

Bayer, G.

The growing number of ongoing development projects demonstrates the increasing international interest in the use of fuel cell technology for car drive systems. A major basic prerequisite for the successful use of hydrogen in vehicle drive systems is the availability of efficient storage systems which facilitate storage of an adequate quantity of hydrogen on board of a vehicle to ensure an acceptable travelling range. Taking the current efficiency levels for fuel cells, this quantity of hydrogen is in the order of approximately 4 kg. Compression with the aim of increasing the density and storage of the hydrogen gas under high pressure is the most obvious and the simplest solution for increasing the quantity of energy stored in a system. As a comparison of the storage efficiency shows, this corresponds to a system size in which the use of light high-pressure tanks of composite design proves to be particularly beneficial. In the H2 700 project, funded by the North Rhine-Westphalian Ministry of Transport, Energy and Spatial Planning, companies have come together with the aim of ensuring that by the middle of 2005 a complete 700-bar tank system for cars will have been developed and approved and will have undergone practical testing. The actual 700-bar hydrogen tank is a so-called type 3 fully wrapped composite cylinder. It consits of a metallic liner with a high-strength filament winding of carbon fibres, embedded in an epoxy resin matrix. It will be tested and approved with reference to the European regulations and the relevant ISO standard. Intensive work is currently in progress to achieve harmonized international standards.