Hydrogen tank assembly for a vehicle, such as an aircraft
AssigneeAirbus SAS
InventorsUwe Beier, Christian Metzner
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A hydrogen tank assembly is provided for use in vehicles, such as aircraft. The hydrogen tank assembly has an inner tank wall, an outer tank wall, and an inert gas source. The inner tank wall defines a hydrogen tank volume that is surrounded by a shroud volume which is defined by the outer tank wall. The hydrogen tank volume is filled with cryogenic hydrogen and has a higher pressure than the shroud volume that is filled with an inert gas, such as helium. The counter-pressure of the inert gas prevents micro-cracks in the inner tank wall and increases the in-service life.
Claims17
A hydrogen tank assembly for a vehicle, the hydrogen tank assembly comprising:
- an inner tank wall that defines a hydrogen tank volume configured to store cryogenic hydrogen at a predetermined hydrogen pressure;
- an outer tank wall that defines a shroud volume which surrounds the inner tank wall;
- an inert gas source that is fluidly connected to the shroud volume and configured to pressurize the shroud volume with an inert gas to an inert gas pressure that is smaller than the hydrogen pressure;
- and
- an inert gas separator that is configured to separate hydrogen from the inert gas and a recirculation line that is arranged to transport the separated inert gas from the inert gas separator back to the inert gas source.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.