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Description
The Development of Hollow Carbon Fiber as a Low-Cost, High Specific Tensile Property
Material for Compressed Gas Storage Tanks
DE-FOA-0002229
Topic 2: Advanced Carbon Fiber for Compressed Gas Storage Tanks
PI: Matt Weisenberger
Co-I: Ashley Morris
Co-I: Rodney Andrews
H2@Scale is a DOE initiative that supports innovations to produce, store, transport, and utilize
hydrogen. A major focus area is the reduction in carbon fiber (CF) cost to allow for lower cost
compressed hydrogen and natural gas storage in hydrogen or compressed natural gas (CNG) fueled
vehicles. CF composites can contribute over half of the cost of the tank. T700S is the baseline
commercial fiber used for tank production, and its price in 2019 ranged from $26-30/kg CF. To
achieve the DOE ultimate target of $8/kWh for hydrogen, CF must be reduced to approximately
$13-15/kg CF. To reduce the cost of high tensile strength CF, reductions will be required in both
the precursor and conversion processes. UK CAER, through a previous DOE funded effort (DE-
FOA-0001647), has developed novel hollow carbon fibers (HCF) which are cheaper to produce
compared to traditional solid CF due to their reduced polymer per length and faster
oxidation. Additionally, the specific tensile properties (specific tensile strength and specific elastic
modulus) are enhanced due to the reduced effective density of the fibers. In order to further
optimize the performance and cost benefits of UK CAER HCF compared to T700S in
a compressed gas storage tank, we propose the following approach to meet the metrics set forth
for Phase I:
1) Maximization of carbon fiber strength
a) Defect identification and mitigation strategies
b) Maximizing strain to failure
2) Hollow fiber spinning scale-up
a) 100 count
b) 500 count
3) Novel hollow fiber accelerated oxidation
a) Utilization of the lumen
4) Continuous thermal conversion
a) Oak Ridge National Lab
5) System cost analysis
a) Strategic Analysis Inc.
During Phase II, the objectives will include scale-up of fiber spinning and thermal conversion to
12,000 filaments, followed by manufacturing and testing of prototype gas storage tanks, as well
as consideration of end-of-life reuse and recyclability. Subcontractors to UK for Phase II will
include Strategic Analysis Inc., Steelhead Composites, and Solvay Carbon Fibers.
Status | Finished |
---|---|
Effective start/end date | 10/1/20 → 9/30/24 |
Funding
- Department of Energy
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Projects
- 1 Active
-
Hollow Carbon Fiber for Low-Cost High-Strength Compressed Gas Storage Tanks
Weisenberger, M., Andrews, R. & Morris, E.
10/1/20 → 9/30/25
Project: Research project