JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #93 - December 2014 - 11

tanks

Continuous monitoring system for
composite hydrogen storage tanks
The Technology Strategy Board (UK) is funding a £430k collaborative research project to develop a system for condition
monitoring of hydrogen storage tanks for mass transit vehicles.

-TECH Materials is celebrating the
award of funding from the UK's
innovation agency, the Technology Strategy Board, under their funding
competition on "Unlocking the hydrogen
energy market". The funding award of
£300k has been made to a group of partners led by R-TECH Services Ltd., part
of the R-TECH Materials Group, for the
development of a continuous monitoring
system to provide an early warning of any
incipient damage in hydrogen storage
tanks used in private and commercial
vehicles using hydrogen fuel cell technology.
The Technology Strategy Board has
agreed to fund 70% of the total project
costs, expected to be almost £430k over
the 24-month project life.

regulatory bodies will need to be gained.
Specifically, hydrogen tank failure
probabilities on vehicles will need to
be orders of magnitude less than those
in existing industrial hydrogen usage, a
major challenge given that transport is a
relatively uncontrolled environment. The
project aim is to develop a continuous
monitoring safety assurance sensor unit
for vehicle hydrogen tanks, whose record
can be read at each vehicle service. This
will greatly reduce failure probabilities,
through early detection of hydrogen embrittlement, fatigue defects and diffusion
leakage.
R-TECH Services will be using its
mechanical testing facilities to generate
defects in composite tank sections, and

Fuel cell technology
Hydrogen is a renewable energy supply
that is returned to its source, water, in
the process of generating energy. It does
so without carbon or any other harmful
emissions and its carbon footprint in the
energy generation cycle is lower than
that of any other renewable. Therefore,
given recent advances in fuel cell technology, it is an attractive and realistic
option as a mass-market transport fuel.
However, to reach such a market, the
confidence of both the public and safety

characterising them by its optical, digital
and electron microscopy equipment.
These defects will then be used to help
partner companies develop the sensing
and data analysis requirements for the
sensor system.

Partners
R-TECH Materials is a group of materials testing, analysis and consultancy businesses based in Port Talbot, South Wales,
UK, consisting of R-TECH Services Ltd.,
a UKAS-accredited materials testing and
analysis business, and Metamet Consultants Ltd., specialists in laboratory-based
materials investigations.
Other partners in the project are TWI,
Pancom and Arcola Energy. TWI Ltd.
is an engineering and materials research
institute with more than 800 staff and
2000 members worldwide. TWI is a UK
research leader in hydrogen embrittlement and industrial digital radiography
with facilities for multiple angle imaging.
Pancom specialises in acoustic emission
services provision and the development
and manufacture of AE sensors, associated electronic hardware and innovative
signal processing software for custom
applications.
Arcola Energy is a multi-disciplinary
developer, manufacturer and retailer of
fuel cell-based energy products, including transport systems. n

A pressure test on composite tank and SEM
image of composite damage

No93 December 2014 /

More information:
www.rtech-materials.co.uk

jec composites magazine 11

http://www.rtech-materials.co.uk

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #93 - December 2014

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