Challenges to the Ultra High Pressure Hydrogen Tank for Fuel Cell Vehicles

摘要

Practical application of fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) has started, and most of them use onboardhydrogen storage tanks as fuel tanks. There are two kinds of onboard storage method, one isindirect storage method and the other is direct one. Among them, direct storage method wherehydrogen is stored as compressed gas is very effective in the view of energy efficiency, mostof the FCVs tested all over the world use high pressure hydrogen gas tank which operatingpressure is 35MPa. In order to achieve a vehicle range comparable to gasoline-poweredvehicles, its operating pressure must be up to 70 MPa. In Japan, a new program about use ofhydrogen energy has started in 2003. One of the goals of the program is developing ultrahigh-pressure hydrogen tanks which operating pressure is 70MPa. We are joining theprogram and developing the tank. The type of a tank under development is type 3, whichconsists of aluminum alloy liner and fully wrapped carbon fiber reinforced plastics. In orderto mount the tank to a normal passenger car, it is desirable that total weight of tanks is light.In the present paper, development of a type 3 tank is introduced, and problems for therealization of an ultra high-pressure hydrogen tank are discussed.