The Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU) is one of six partner institutions from industry and science in the joint project Mukran – developing new, mobile hydrogen sphere storage systems.
The spherical shape of high-pressure containers – compared to the conventional cylindrical shape – should reduce the load on their outer shell. This means that in the future they could be transported by ship, train or truck. The aim of the Mukran project is to implement and demonstrate the entire process chain from container development and prototype construction to a mobile storage system suitable for road, rail and ship transport.
To this end, the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU, Department of Polymer-Based Lightweight Construction) and the project partners, are developing two spherical storage tanks with different material compositions: one variant made of various steel alloys and another with a steel interior and a load-bearing outer shell made of high-strength carbon fiber-reinforced plastic. Through this choice of materials, the researchers hope to achieve cost savings that will make the spherical storage units competitive, as well as greater durability and improved recyclability. To make the new hydrogen storage systems mobile, they are now to be installed in standardized container formats. This requires the development of a frame that keeps the spherical storage units stable in the container during transport. In addition, solutions for filling and removing the gaseous hydrogen must be found and tested.
The entire project is being funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with around 19 million euros.
In the research project, the winding technology shown here is compared with Automated Fiber Placement; Photo: BTU: Sascha Thor
