Comprehensive design and preliminary experiments of liquid hydrogen storage tank for trucks

Abstract

As the global demand for lower carbon emissions intensifies, the deployment of medium and small-scale liquid hydrogen (LH2) storage tanks in heavy-duty trucking and aviation is expected to increase. However, heat leakage into these cryogenic vessels leads to a continuous increase in tank pressure, potentially resulting in sudden hydrogen release and other safety concerns. While horizontal LH2 tanks demonstrate greater suitability in the transportation sector compared to vertical tanks, investigations in this domain remain scarce. Research on horizontal tanks is crucial for safe and efficient storage. Understanding these dynamics is essential for predicting temperature and pressure changes during self-pressurization, ensuring safe liquid hydrogen storage. This study designed and built a 500-liter horizontal liquid hydrogen tank for vehicle fuel storage, following ISO 13985 standards to ensure practical applicability. The project encompassed material selection, structural design, and both stress and thermodynamic analyses. Preliminary experiments were conducted using liquid nitrogen as a substitute for liquid hydrogen. Experiments assessed tank heat leakage, vapor-cooled shield insulation performance, thermal stratification, lossless storage time, and pressure changes during self-pressurization and steady-state evaporation. Results validate the efficiency of our pressure vessel design method for complex conditions, enhancing understanding of self-pressurization and thermal stratification in horizontal tanks. The vapor-cooled shield reduced heat leakage into the tank by 22.7%, decreasing the daily evaporation rate under liquid nitrogen conditions from 1.87 wt% to 1.5 wt%. and maintaining an initial liquid level of 50% extended the lossless storage time to 50 h in the LN2 scenario. These findings offer valuable insights for assessing the performance of subsequent liquid hydrogen experiments.