Journal of Pressurized Equipment and Systems 2 (2004) 59-63

State-of-the-art of fiber-reinforced high-pressure hydrogen

storage tanks
Fangming Kai a,*, Zhongqiang Liu a, Qiang Fu a, Jinyang Zheng a, Changpin Chen b
a
Institute of Chemical Process Equipment, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027,China,
b
Institute of Metal Materials, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027,China

Abstract

The state-of-the-art of gaseous hydrogen storage tanks is reviewed in this paper. The structure, design and testing methods of fi-
ber-reinforced composite tanks are introduced. The tank mainly consists of a permeation resistant polymer or metal liner, car-
bon-fiber-reinforced layer which takes almost all the loads due to inner pressure, impact-resistant layer and external protective layer.

Keywords: Hydrogen storage tanks; Composite materials; High-pressure tanks.

1. Introduction ermore National Laboratory and Thiokol achieved the

Mass consumption of fossil fuel has caused envi-
ronment problems in many countries. Increase in the
CO2, NO2 and SOx emissions due to this huge con-
sumption of fossil fuel has led to the greenhouse effect
and air pollution. Hydrogen energy is one of the most
important energy sources, which is clean and efficient.
Many countries are engaged in the development of the
hydrogen related energy technology. Hydrogen storage
is one of the key issues in the hydrogen energy tech-
nology. At present, there have been four different hy-
drogen storage methods: liquified hydrogen, com-
pressed hydrogen gas, metal hydride and nanostruc-
ture carbon hydrogen storage [1].
The technique using compressed hydrogen gas is
widely used due to its simplicity of the storage system
and low cost for storage and transport compared with
the other techniques. This paper summarizes the recent
progresses in lightweight high-pressure hydrogen
storage tanks.
2. Recent progresses in high-pressure hydrogen
storage technology
2.1. Development of high-pressure hydrogen stor-
age tanks
The energy volumetric density of hydrogen is less
than traditional fuel. To improve hydrogen storage
mass efficiency and reduce transportation cost, the
tanks should stand a higher storage pressure with less
weight.
In 2000, the Quantum Technologies, Lawrence Liv-
hydrogen storage mass efficiency of 11.3 weight per-
centage on a prototype 35 MPa tank and demonstrated
proof-of-concept 70 MPa tank [2]. In 2002, the storage
mass efficiency got 13.36% on a 35 MPa Aerospace
demonstration. In July 2002, the Lincoln Composites
has successfully tested a Tuffshell hydrogen storage
tank with an operating pressure of 70 MPa and a burst
pressure of 175 MPa [3]. In Mar 1, 2002, Honda an-
nounced that it had received Japanese Ministry of
Land, Infrastructure and Transport approval for the
FCX V4 fuel cell vehicle equipped with a 35 MPa
high-pressure hydrogen tank. Honda has applied the
high-pressure tank technology accumulated through
natural vehicle development to fit the FCX-V4 with a
35 MPa high-pressure hydrogen tank.
In the high-pressure hydrogen storage technology,
China is at the beginning stage in general. But there
are mature storage techniques of CNG (Compressed
Natural Gas). In many cities, CNG fuel vehicles are
used. For example, in Chengdu city in southwest of
China, all the taxis use CNG as the fuel. Normally, the
operating pressure of the composite CNG tank is 20
MPa [4]. Some companies are devoting to research
and produce CNG tanks. Because the working condi-
tion of the high-pressure hydrogen tanks is similar to
CNG tanks, the technology of CNG tanks are useful to
the hydrogen storage tanks [5]. Chinese government is
keen to develop the technology and includes it in the
863 high tech programs. Zhejiang University and other
research institutes have devoted to the research of CH4
tank and began to test a hydrogen storage tank with an
operating pressure of 40 MPa.

*
2.2. Codes and standards for the high-pressure hy-
Corresponding author.
drogen storage tanks
E-mail address: seeyouseeme@zju.edu.cn (FangMing Kai).
60 Fangming. Kai et al. / State-of-the-art of fiber-reinforced high-pressure hydrogen storage tanks
So far, there is no international standard approved
for the hydrogen storage tanks. International Standard
Organization has established the draft of ISO 15869,
“Gaseous hydrogen and hydrogen blends-Land vehicle
fuel tanks”. In March 2003, ASME was given the lead
in developing standards for composite containers,
pipelines, and equipment relating to the category of
hydrogen delivery and storage in USA. Because of the
similarity between CNG tanks and hydrogen storage
tanks, hydrogen storage tanks can be designed and
manufactured by referring to the CNG tank codes and
standards, such as ISO 11439-2000, “High-pressure
Cylinders for the On-board Storage of Natural Gas as
a Fuel for Automotive Vehicles” and ANSI (the
American National Standards Institute) code,
NGV2-2000, “Basic Requirements for Compressed
Natural Gas Vehicle (NGV) Fuel Containers”. For
some composite hydrogen storage tanks, the ASME
Code, Section X, “Fiber-reinforced Plastic Pressure
Vessels”, EN 12245, “Transportable gas cylinders.
Fully wrapped composite cylinders” and EN 13923,
“Filament wound FRP pressure tanks” can also be
used.
Now, there are still no national standards available
for the hydrogen storage tanks in China. For designing
of steel tanks of the maximum design pressure of 35
MPa, GB150-1998, “Steel Pressure Vessels” can be
used. Standards of CNG tanks, such as GB
17258-1998, “High-pressure tanks for the On-board
Storage of Natural Gas” can also be referred to. For
the fiber-reinforced tanks, the standards such as,
GB6058-1985, “Fabrication and pressure testing of the
fiber-wrapped pressure tanks” are available.
3. Fiber-reinforced high-pressure hydrogen storage
tanks
3.1. Structure
Because composite material is low in density, high
in strength and modulus, the advanced hydrogen stor-
age tanks adopt multi-layers composite structure. Such
composite tank shown in Fig. 1 mainly consists of
internal liner, transition layer that is overwrapped with
carbon fiber-reinforced layer, impact-resistant layer,
and fiberglass-reinforced external protective layer.
Internal liner. The main function of internal liner is
to provide hydrogen permeation barrier, preventing
compressed hydrogen gas form leaking. It also serves
as the mandrel during winding process. The liner
doesn’t share any of the shell membrane loads. But the
liner’s low modulus makes it easier in deformation
during pressurization. So the liner can transfer the
loads to the carbon fiber-reinforced layer.
The permeability of high-pressure hydrogen is very
important. The American Gas Association (AGA) pre-
scripts that the liner must be of sufficient thickness
such that the tank will meet the permeability limit of
0.25 cc/hr/liter [6]. Though relatively light and inex-
pensive, the engineering plastic has a low permeation
rate, good corrosion resistance and mechanical proper-
ties. It’s easily formed. Overlayed the metal on the
surface of the polymer, it has better performance as
permeation barriers. Though the polymer liner
couldn’t resist the loads, it reduces the weight of the
tank. The polymer liner is 30% lighter than the metal
and the cost is reduced by 50% [7]. The liner consists
of one cylinder and two domed ends made by blow
molding. A metal boss is disposed in a polar opening
in the domed ends of the liner. The domed ends are
injection molded around the tank boss. The structure is
shown in Fig. 2. The modulus of the polymer and the
metal are different, so the stiffness isn’t continuous at
the interface of two materials. Therefore the transition
must be smooth so that the boss will not be off when
subjected to the loads. The polymer material is sensi-
tive to the temperature and it’s much easier to aging
with change in temperature during the charging opera-
tion. The difference in the coefficient of thermal ex-
pansion between liner and boss may cause the joint
leak with increase of temperature cycle number. And
the impact-resistant character of the polymer liner
tanks is not as good as the metal liner tanks.
Some metal liners have better performance for pre-
venting permeation of hydrogen. Besides this, they
can resist a part of the loads. At the same time, the
other loads are transferred to the fiber-reinforced layer.
The material could be alloy of aluminum, steel and
others. The structure of the metal liner is similar to the
polymer one. The metal boss is threaded connected
with the nozzle embedded in the polar opening of the
domed ends. The metal liner enhances the reliability
and impact-resistant performance. But the design abil-
ity of the metal need improve.
Carbon fiber-reinforced layer. The fi-
ber-reinforced layer takes all or large part of the loads.
The layer is wound by the carbon fiber/epoxy on a
professional numerical control winding machine.
Carbon fiber is selected because of its high
strength-to-weight ratio, high modulus-to-weight ratio,
excellent fatigue resistant characteristics, insensitivity
to environmental degradation, and perfect reliability. It
is a good material for making lightweight
high-pressure tanks. The carbon fiber, T1000G, pro-
duced by Toray has excellent performances, its tensile
strength is 6370 MPa, tensile modulus 294 GPa, elon-
gation percentage 2.2%, and density 1.8 g/cm3 [8].
The fiber-reinforced structure can greatly reduce the
weight and the cost of tank. For the fiber-reinforced
CNG tank, the weight is only 1/4 of that of the metal
tank. Zoltek plans to at least reduce the price to 11
dollars/kg before 2003~2004 [9]. When the price of
the carbon fiber is 17.6 dollars/kg, the cost of the tank
is 22.3% of the metal tank. Even the price is 28.6 dol-
lars/kg, the cost is only 27.3% of the metal ones [10].
 Journal of Pressurized Equipment and Systems 2 (2004) 59-63 61

1. Boss 2. Nozzle 3. Impact-resistant layer 4. Fiberglass-reinforced external protective layer

5.Carbon-fiber-reinforced layer 6. Transition layer 7.Iinternal liner

Fig. 1. Construction of fiber-reinforced composite tanks.

1 2 3 4 5 6

1. Impact-resistant layer 2. Fiberglass-reinforced external protective layer 3. Boss

4. Transition layer 5. Carbon-fiber-reinforced layer 6. Internal liner

Fig. 2. Traditional dome construction of the fiber-reinforced composite tanks.

The liner is overwrapped with both low-angle and
high-angle helical filament. The continuous carbon
fiber dipped in the resin applicator, were wrapped on
the surface of the liner under the initial force. And
then, the fiber-reinforced layer is solidified and shaped
at the moderate temperature. The prior art designs are
disadvantageous in failing to adequately strengthen at
the cylinder-to-dome transition area. Now, high angle
helical windings at angles from 60o to 88o to the lon-
gitudinal axis of the tank cross the transition points. It
eliminates the slippage and void occurrence and re-
duced strength properties in this area [6]. To prevent
the tank from buckling, it could be subjected to some
internal pressure during winding.
Furthermore, this layer could be made of
multi-fibers, such as carbon fiber and fiberglass. This
structure can reduced the cost and adjust the perform-
ance of the layer. Gunfire test shows that a 50/50 car-
bon/fiberglass hybrid is an optimum, low-cost over-
wrap design and the fiberglass makes a significant
contribution to gunfire toughness [11].
Transition layer. The difference in properties be-
tween the internal liner and the fiber-reinforced layer
makes the tendency of relative displacement under
internal pressure. It creates shear stresses between the
two layers. The buffer material with high shear
modulus is intercalated between these two layers. The
shear strain of the buffer material is lower. So the fa-
tigue life of the tank is improved.
Rubber as the traditional buffer material is stick on
the surface of the liner by adhesive. It is not easy to
manufacture. In this tank, the adhesive with high shear
modulus is used as the buffer material. It replaces the
rubber and the adhesive in the prior structure. The
winding process on the buffer layer is easier than on
the metal liner. In particular, the fiber slippage could
be avoided. The entirety of the tank is improved.
Sometimes, it’s lighter than the rubber layer.
Impact-resistant layer. When a tank drops, the
impact could damage the tank and make fiber fracture.
The impact-resistant layer will deform to absorb the
energy of the impact, mitigate the peak load and dis-
tribute the induced load over an enlarged area. Nor-
mally the damage mitigating material is light and
62 Fangming. Kai et al. / State-of-the-art of fiber-reinforced high-pressure hydrogen storage tanks
could be polystyrene, polyurethane, polyethylene or
polypropylene foam and other polymers. They have
good thermal insulation, heat endurance and com-
pressibility. Traditionally, this layer is embedded be-
tween the fiberglass-reinforced external protective
layer and the carbon fiber-reinforced layer. It is inte-
grated in the area of the dome-shaped end as shown in
Fig. 2. This area is quite effective because such an
elongated tank, when dropped, normally will land on
one of its ends and/or bounce back and forth between
its ends [12].
Traditional structure could release the impact en-
ergy and protect the tank when the impact angle to the
o
axial of the tank is 45 . With the increase or decrease
of the impact angle, the damage mitigating system
could not work very well. The boss, the dome and the
side of the tank could be damaged. Because of the ex-
istence of the damage mitigating material, the winding
process of the layer becomes more difficult.
The structure of this tank can resist the small or
large angle impact and protect the boss, the dome and
the side of the tank. Moreover, the impact-resistant
layer is easier to be fixed on the dome of the car-
bon-fiber shell and wound with the glass-fiber.
Though this system increases the dimension of the
tank, it’s more effective.
Fiberglass-reinforced external protective layer.
Carbon fiber is a kind of material perfect for the fi-
ber-reinforced layer. Normally, the wall of the fi-
ber-reinforced layer is too thin to have enough stiff-
ness. Fiberglass-reinforced external protective layer is
introduced to supply extensive protection and add the
stiffness of the tank. With the increase of wall thick-
ness, the stability of the tank’s cross section is im-
proved. Furthermore, by increasing the thickness, the
effect of damage to a tank’s outer layer is lesser be-
cause the ratio of damage layers to undamaged layers
is decreased under the same shock [13]. The damage
tolerance is enhanced. It needs the fiberglass layer to
provide more strength, improve damage tolerance of
the tank and protect the internal layers as the sacrifi-
cial layer. The use of fiberglass is high cost effective
compared with simply adding more carbon fiber to the
wall. The winding process of the fiberglass layer is the
same as the carbon fiber layer. But it shall not be in-
cluded in the determination of the required wall
thickness.
3.2. Design
The theories of mechanics of composite materials
such as the netting theory, the laminated plate theory
can be used. Finite element analysis and other nu-
merical methods are used to evaluate tank design.
The netting theory assumes that resin carries no
load. This could be a reasonable assumption of the
actual condition in filament-wound composites. Other
element will not work on it. According to this theory,
the hoop strength and the longitudinal strength of the
fiber and the thickness of the laminate could be calcu-
lated. This design method is based on prototype test-
ing. A prototype is designed and manufactured identi-
cally to a purchased tank but only can be used for
testing purpose. The parameter of the laminate should
be amended according to the experimental findings.
The experimental result could be effected by the di-
mension of the prototype and fabrication processing
[14].
In the application of the laminate theory, certain as-
sumptions are made. Interlaminar or transverse shear
is not addressed. Laminate stress resultants and mo-
ment resultants are taken as an average of ply stresses
across the thickness of the laminate. The laminate is
assumed to consist of perfectly bonded lamina, i.e.
displacements are continuous and no lamina slips rela-
tive to another. This theory requires that four elastic
constants (longitudinal and transverse tensile modulus,
in-plane shear modulus, and Poisson’s ratio) and five
strength constants (longitudinal and transverse tensile
strength, longitudinal and transverse compressive
strength, and in-plane shear strength) for the lamina be
determined through the test. The test coupon should
represent the orthotropic lamina under consideration.
The laminate theory is a mathematical treatment of the
mechanics governing the behavior of unidirectional
orthotropic lamina and the interrelation between mul-
tiple laminas. The winding pattern shall be considered
as a laminate. Laminate theory shall be used to deter-
mine the in-plane and flexural modulus components
that define the stress-strain and moment-curvature
relationships and the effective engineering constants
of the laminate. At the same time, it can examine the
strength of a laminate based on the strain state of indi-
vidual lamina reacting to impose moment and stress
resultants.
Finite element method could be an effective tool for
stress analysis. Applying commercial finite element
analysis software such as NASTRAN, the
two-dimension axisymmetrical model of the tank is
constructed with considerable effort towards the accu-
rate representation of the geometries and material
properties. The stress, especially in the transition of
the cylinder and the head could be calculated [15].
Moreover, the fatigue life of the tank can be evaluated.
After the initial design, the method of parametric uni-
tary optimization of the tank is proposed. An optimi-
zation strategy for such the weight as the tank is also
proposed.
3.3. Testing
Hydrogen is a kind of inflammable gas. It is very
important to ensure the safety and the reliability of the
high-pressure hydrogen storage tanks. The tank must
be tested through multiple independence methods. The
programs generally follow the tests developed for
 Journal of Pressurized Equipment and Systems 2 (2004) 59-63
CNG tanks. They include burst tests, fatigue, extreme
temperature, hydrogen cycling, bonfire, severe drop
impact test, flaw tolerance and gunfire penetration,
accelerated stress, permeation, material tests, etc.
(a)
(b)
Fig. 3. Cylinders vs. a conformable tank in a rectangular enve-
lope.
4. Trend of development
Now, the high-pressure hydrogen storage tanks are
developing toward lightweight and high-pressure.
Light, efficient, cost-effective and reliable hydrogen
storage systems and the relative standards are the
goals. The increase of the operating pressure is not the
final aim. The storage mass efficiency of the Quan-
tum’s 35 MPa tank increased from 11.3% (wt) to
13.36% (wt). It illuminates that the storage mass effi-
ciency could be improved even if the operating pres-
sure is not very high. With the increase of pressure, the
requirement of the material and the structure, the cost
and the damage of the accident will be improved.
Because the energy density of the hydrogen is sig-
nificantly less, the large volume of hydrogen gas is
required. So the multi-tank structure is required. The
cylinder tank is near-optimum pressure tank structure,
but the cylinder geometry of these tanks does not lend
the efficient usage of the normal rectangular envelope
as shown in Fig. 3(a). The transportation cost is in-
creased. The problem is addressed through the devel-
opment of the conformable pressure tank abroad as
shown in Fig. 3(b) [16]. This structure consists of two
end tanks and multiple interior tanks. The internal
volume of the conformable tank at least gets 70% of a
rectangular envelop volume. It’s larger than the inter-
nal volume of the multiple cylinders in the same en-
velope.
Currently, an international standard is needed to
clear the technical barrier between the countries. The
intercommunication should be enhanced to accelerate
the development of this technology.
In China, the per capita energy resource is very lim-
ited. There are serious environment and energy prob-
63
lems. So the use of the hydrogen energy should be a
desirable way to solve the problems. As an important
element of the hydrogen energy technology, the light-
weight high-pressure storage tanks should be devel-
oped through absorbing the existing experiences and
theories. New materials and structures are the key to
improve the performance of hydrogen storage tanks
which deserve further research efforts.
Acknowledgement
This study is sponsored by 863 Hi-Tech Research
and Development Program of China, Project
No.2002AA515020.
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