TDA RESEARCH, INC. — Department of Energy SBIR Phase I: 10a

Description

The commercial success of the Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles commercial success will require significant reductions in the cost of hydrogen fueling. Current fueling stations require pre- cooling equipment that chills the hydrogen to -40°C; this is needed to offset the temperature rise caused by compression during fueling to keep the compressed tank’s operating temperature below its maximum operating temperature of 85˚C. If the precooling requirement could be reduced or eliminated, the cost of delivered hydrogen could be significantly reduced. TDA Research proposes to develop a smart hydrogen storage tank that incorporates novel cooling schemes to quickly dissipate/absorb the heat of compression and keep the hydrogen gas temperature well below the hydrogen tank design temperature of 85°C with minimal impact on the cost, weight, volume, fill time, and well-to-power plant efficiency. TDA’s design maximizes the heat transfer area and the heat transfer coefficients to quickly dissipate the heat throughout the refueling process. In the Phase I of the project, we will design and carry out sub-scale proof-of-concept tests of the smart tank design at the bench-scale to demonstrate that we can carry out re-fueling from any charge state and ambient temperature conditions, eliminating the precooling requirements at the station. We will also complete a preliminary design of the smart hydrogen storage tank for FCEVs and compare it against the DOE baseline 700 bar system.