German hydrogen consortium working on flat H2 tank

BMW, Bosch, Hexagon Purus and Testnet Engineering are working together on a flat hydrogen tank for the underbody of future fuel cell cars. The first prototypes of the 700 bar high-pressure storage tank are to be developed by the end of 2022.

The declared goal is for the hydrogen tanks to be able to be integrated into the installation space normally provided for the integration of the battery pack in electric cars. To achieve this, the hydrogen tanks must above all become flatter than before. While the cuboid battery modules can fill the existing installation space in the underbody between the axles quite well, this has not been the case with hydrogen tanks so far.

The high-pressure tanks are cylindrical and therefore have different installation space requirements. In the Toyota Mirai, a large H2 tank is placed longitudinally under the centre console, and others are installed transversely on the rear axle. In the Hyundai Nexo, the three tanks are also installed around the rear axle: Two tanks sit transversely under the rear seat, the third behind the axle under the boot. The tanks each have a diameter of around 30 centimetres. By comparison, the flattest BEV batteries are only eleven centimetres high.

Within the ‘FlatHyStor’ consortium, the Kassel-based company Hexagon Purus has a key role to play: Hexagon Purus will develop the corresponding high-pressure hydrogen cylinders and the corresponding vehicle integration structure. Bosch will supply the tank valve and high-pressure regulator technology, and Testnet Engineering will validate the components.

The announcement does not say for which vehicle the integration solution will be developed. BMW is currently working on only one hydrogen vehicle: the iX5 Hydrogen. A small series based on the combustion engine X5 is planned. The individual cells of the fuel cell come from Toyota. The fuel cell stack, known as the stack, and the overall drive system are developments of the BMW Group.

The project “FlatHyStor – Functional design and testing of an innovative hydrogen tank system” is funded by the German government with a total budget of six million euros.

hydrogen-central.com

6 Comments

about „German hydrogen consortium working on flat H2 tank“

Prashant Patel

10.02.2022 um 13:54

This article is very useful and people must take a note as battery technology is not environmental friendly. Future is hydrogen.

Jack Davis

14.02.2022 um 09:56

This story doesn't begin to look squarely at the humungous problems of hydrogen. Apart from the inefficiencies of producing and consuming hydrogen, it doesn't even get to grips with this storage problem. 700 bar in a large flat container???? There's a hint that the tank will have a lot of tubes in it "Hexagon Purus will develop the corresponding high-pressure hydrogen cylinders and the corresponding vehicle integration structure." But there is no discussion of the difficulties. I know I wouldn't want to be sitting over that pressure bomb.

Nick

12.02.2022 um 13:50

What about the environmental impact of the production of; fuel cells, the electrolysers, electrolyzers, the fuel tanks, the hydrogen distribution and filling station infrastructure and then there are the 200% extra wind turbines needed to produce all the green electricity to make the hydrogen to do the same number of miles as a battery electric vehicle. And don't forget you still need a moderate sized battery to provide the necessary power boost for acceleration and efficiency savings from regenerative braking.You have to do the full chain analysis, you can't just compare are the hydrogen with a battery, it's a bit like saying an egg is a more environmentally friendly food than a fruit cake because the cake has more stuff in it, which is office later totally invalid comparison. I haven't done the full cycle HFCV/BEV comparison and it may be that hydrogen does win in in the environmental stakes, but I'm fairly sure that if it does it will only be by a small margin, but probably not against future battery technology.

William Tahil

10.02.2022 um 20:22

Hydrogen is the future if we produce it using resonant pulse methods to break the HO bond electromagnetically. The we can use water as fuel.

Franko Ku

13.02.2022 um 03:47

Just slow down for net zero as economic destruction spending 10 trillion US $ per year will have many more diie than from warming. E and S. Korea reports saying LNG is a clean enough fuel for a while.

Garry Rayner

13.02.2022 um 23:44

We all agree that hydrogen is the fuel of next generation of fuel We just need to focus on methods to produce in high volumes Also distribution and storage