Dutch manufacturer develops sustainable 700-bar filling technique for future hydrogen cars

There are a lot of new H2 technologies being developed for FCV...I am quite excited about it too.

 

Well, there will always be some hydrogen left, so adding water shouldn't be an issue to a partial tank. At least nothing potentially dangerous or harmful. Some of the tank hydrogen could be lost by dissolving into the water, but I think the water used in the system would soon become saturated with it, so any loss would be tiny.

 

If there is any water left in the tank after filling then you have to worry about freezing. Freezing water expands which could increase the H2 pressure. A more likely problem is frozen water that plugs up the gas flow or interferes with any valves or pressure regulators in the line leading to the fuel cells.

 

A little bit of water left in the tank won't increase the pressure enough to worry about if it freezes. The Mirai tanks are actually rated to 85MPa.

Freezing in the fuel line is a real concern. This system leaves the hydrogen humidified. As it leaves the tank, it steps down in pressure. The fuel lines are likely going to be metal to contain the contain, albeit lower, pressure. The expanding hydrogen will cool the line, possibly to freezing. It it doesn't, winter temps will do so. Then the resulting frost could build up enough to block the pipe.

The fix is simple though. Heat the lines, use plastic materials that are non heat conductive, or lines of a large enough diameter that any frost build up won't impede the line. Pressure regulators and valves will likely need heating like diesel fuel filters.

It will require alterations to current tank design; there needs to be a dip tube at least to allow the water to be squeezed out. This is another example on why CARB pressing for comercialization is premature.

 

lol. Remember when CARB decided all gas stations in california needed to use mbte, before it was tested on the storage tanks. And the tanks leaked, and it got into the water table, and created a huge hazard. No one at CARB got fired over that. They got to increase the staff and a bigger budget to clean up the mess they made. Now do you really think CARB as part of the California Fuel Cell Partnership (known as the leaders of the fuel cell lobby) really cares if they have tax payers buy bad technology?
Why California mandated poison in your tank

Carb like the honey badger don't care. They get bigger staff and more money to do anything. Hell this is only another $220M, plus maybe $30K per car on a really small number of cars, pretty small compared to the over $3B already spent on fuel cells.by the federal government.

 

Expanding hydrogen heats up rather than cools, that's one of the weird properties of hydrogen.

The shut-off valve will indeed require some kind of heating system if you want to start the fuel cell in freezing temperatures.

Correct

 

Thanks for the info.