The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) yesterday announced that they will fund more than $7 million to advance hydrogen storage technologies to be used in fuel cell electric vehicles.
The 3-year project will fund four projects in California, Washington and Oregon. Hexagon Composites’ business unit Lincoln Composites is nominated to participate in one of the four projects to reduce the costs associated with compressed hydrogen storage systems.
Hexagon Composites has developed the first generation composite containers and the company is actively working to set guidelines for the further development of composite containers for the storage of hydrogen under high pressure.
Hydrogen has huge potential as an energy carrier in the future, and has for many years Hexagon Composites have played a role in the development of the storage technology for hydrogen fuel. Hydrogen under high pressure stands out today as the best and most cost effective solution for the use of hydrogen as an energy carrier for vehicles. Hexagon Composites is a partner in several projects involving the development of customised containers for buses, cars, filling stations and the transport of hydrogen. The participation in the U.S. state hydrogen project will be of great importance to Hexagon in the further development of effective and secure solutions.
In this project, DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, in collaboration with Lincoln Composites, Ford Motor Company, Toray Carbon Fibers America, Inc. and AOC Inc., will use a coordinated approach to reduce the costs associated with compressed hydrogen storage systems. The project will focus on improving carbon fibre composite materials and the design and manufacture of hydrogen storage tanks. Through these advances, the team expects to lower the cost of manufacturing high-pressure hydrogen storage vessels by more than a third relative to current projections.
According to the DOE the project will help lower costs and increase performance of hydrogen storage systems by developing innovative materials and advanced tanks for efficient and safe transportation. These investments are a part of DOE’s commitment to o help domestic automakers bring more fuel cell electric vehicles into the mainstream market.
[rssless][connections id=’4,5,6,7′][/rssless]