| Work Detail |
After more than two years of work, it is the first of its kind developed in the country.
Researchers from the Institute for Research in Materials Science and Technology of the city of Mar del Plata (INTEMA) have announced the development of the first carbon fiber tank to store high-pressure hydrogen built in Argentina.
As the project manager, Dr. Exequiel Rodríguez, explained to pv magazine in a communication, the container was tested at the facilities of the Punta Indio Space Center, and they have managed to exceed 600 bars of burst pressure in the design without causing it to occur . component failure.
Rodríguez points out that "the limit of the test bench was reached, 735 bars, without any damage being observed in the tank."
It also states that the container was manufactured using the filament winding technique and has an interior polymeric liner, aluminum boses and a casing made of epoxy resin reinforced with carbon fibers.
“This development is the result of more than two years of work in which the design of the composite material was worked on, obtaining polymeric resins resistant to microcracking”, he specifies.
Another precision provided by the scientist, also a CONICET researcher and professor at the Faculty of Engineering of the National University of Mar del Plata (UNMdP), points out "in turn, the interior liner that acts as a barrier for the gas leak was obtained using a polymer with low hydrogen permeability. The loading points at the ends of the tank are made of aluminium, with a design that ensures the tightness of the container and perfect adhesion to the liner”.
"To guarantee the minimum weight, a geometric and mechanical design was carried out using evolutionary algorithms, an artificial intelligence method that allows obtaining the optimal combination of fiber angles and layer thickness of composite material," he stresses.
The team that has developed the tank is completed by Dr. Juan Morán, a specialist in numerical simulation and AI techniques, and engineers Pablo Leiva, Julián Soldani and Exequiel Gutiérrez.
Regarding financing, part of it is for the Franco-Argentine innovation award that the team obtained in 2019, awarded by the French embassy in Argentina, the Total Austral company and the Argentine Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (Mincyt). .
Financing has also been received from the Buenos Aires Digital Transformation program, from the Undersecretary of Science, Technology and Innovation of the province of Buenos Aires.
The Mar del Plata company WesRam SA (for the manufacture of the interior liner), Kohlenia SRL (in the lamination of the last part of the tank) and the company VENG SA (in the final qualification test) collaborated in the development.
"Currently - work continues to improve the thermal performance of the tank in a joint project with the INSA (National Institutes of Science and Technology) of France and in the qualification of the tank according to international standards."
An important point is that "for this last process the investment of a company that acquires the manufacturing technology or of an end user for the containers is required".
"This type of tank is ideal for the use of hydrogen in the transport of electric vehicles (cargo or passenger transport, or for private use) where weight savings is a critical variable," concludes Rodríguez. |
