To understand why Type IV works so well for the hydrogen economy, one needs to understand the different types of pressure vessels.
- Type I: A traditional steel cylinder used to store gases for industrial processes. Inexpensive to manufacture, but difficult.
- Type II: An additional carbon fiber reinforcement surrounds the inner steel tank and holds the load together with the metal. The container is therefore more resilient and lighter, but also more expensive than type I.
- Type III: A carbon fiber container with an internal steel or aluminum liner. The outer carbon fiber container holds the load. Since more carbon fiber is used, the costs are higher than with Type II, but higher pressures can be achieved.
- Type IV: A carbon fiber container with an internal plastic liner (polyamide or polyethylene). Type IV containers cost more to purchase, but are characterized by their significantly lower weight and very high load capacity compared to all other container types.
What are the advantages of a Type IV pressure vessel?
Although storage is also possible in the simple Type I containers, weight must be taken into account as a significant factor, always when pressure containers are to be transported. The weight of the tanks, which are partially or completely made of metal, increases the transport costs, so that here the carbon fiber becomes attractive.
Another factor is resilience. Carbon fiber gives the container a fundamentally higher load capacity, so that larger loads can be withstood. Carbon fiber also significantly improves the corrosion and fatigue resistance of a pressure vessel, so that increased safety is another decisive advantage.
Last but not least, volume is an advantage of Type IV pressure vessels made from carbon fiber composite. Due to its particularly high resilience, hydrogen can be stored in type IV carbon fiber pressure vessels at higher pressure. By combining many containers in one container unit, very large volumes of hydrogen can be stored in this way. This reduces the transport effort between producer and consumer and thus contributes to further energy savings.
Pressure vessel manufacturer in Halol