Swappable Hydrogen Storage Tanks for Land Mobility

Climate change from anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere from fossil fuel combustion poses a major threat to civilisation. Data by the World Bank shows transport accounts for roughly 23 % of global CO2 emissions and of this, motor vehicles are responsible for the majority. Yet there is currently a lack of lack of suitable alternative fuel, this must change to meet the Paris COP-21 agreement reduction targets.

Hydrogen has been identified as a promising energy vector able to bring renewable energy into homes, industry and transport which are areas that so far have struggled to adopt more sustainable technology. It is a flammable gas that can be renewably generated from the electrolysis of water or processing of other sources like biomass. Hydrogen can be liquified and in that form is a popular rocket fuel with potential for commercial aviation. Hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles commonly use a PEM-type fuel-cell to convert hydrogen gas and oxygen into water vapour generating electrical energy that can drive an electric motor to propel the vehicle forward without the harmful emissions that are associated with an equivalent fossil fuelled combustion engine. This provides an immense benefit to both local air quality and global progress towards reducing carbon emissions.

Currently there are many challenges to utilising renewable energy for a vehicle with alternatives like electric batteries suffering from issues like low energy-density, high costs of materials and relative immaturity of the technology. Hydrogen on the other hand is most gravimetrically energy dense fuel available storing more energy per kilogramme than any other chemical fuel. However, it suffers from a very low volumetric density, meaning that the gas is impractical to use as fuel without being compressed or liquified resulting in a storage challenge that must be addressed. Current rapid high-pressure or liquid hydrogen refuelling methods require significant infrastructure investment, lower well-to-wheel efficiency and have safety concerns towards the user.

The objective of this project is to address one of the biggest parts of the storage challenge which is the refuelling of the storage tank on the vehicle, developing a novel method in the form of swappable refuelling whereby tanks are swapped out and then refuelled externally. Analysis into the feasibility of such a system will be carried out as a desk-based study with key factors such as the hypothetical performance, infrastructure required as well as the carbon and energy savings possible compared against current methods. The development of a digital twin and desk-top prototype is key to determining the viability of such a system and for demonstration purposes.
A swappable system has the potential to make renewable propulsion technologies more viable for everyday use bringing a direct reduction to carbon emissions by overcoming the existing challenges of range and refuelling holding back current vehicle offerings. Benefits like increased safety, lower energy consumption and increased accessibility of refuelling infrastructure can come from this project.

This is relevant to the EPSRC goals of delivering sustainable innovations that improve everyday life and tackle climate change.

Impact Summary

This proposal has been developed from the ground up to guarantee the highest level of impact. The two principal routes towards impact are via the graduates that we train and by the embedding of the research that is undertaken into commercial activity. The impact will have a significant commercial value through addressing skills requirements and providing technical solutions for the automotive industry - a key sector for the UK economy.

The graduates that emerge from our CDT (at least 84 people) will be transformative in two distinct ways. The first is a technical route and the second is cultural.

In a technical role, their deep subject matter expertise across all of the key topics needed as the industry transitions to a more sustainable future. This expertise is made much more accessible and applicable by their broad understanding of the engineering and commercial context in which they work. They will have all of the right competencies to ensure that they can achieve a very significant contribution to technologies and processes within the sector from the start of their careers, an impact that will grow over time. Importantly, this CDT is producing graduates in a highly skilled sector of the economy, leading to jobs that are £50,000 more productive per employee than average (i.e. more GVA). These graduates are in demand, as there are a lack of highly skilled engineers to undertake specialist automotive propulsion research and fill the estimated 5,000 job vacancies in the UK due to these skills shortages. Ultimately, the CDT will create a highly specialised and productive talent pipeline for the UK economy.

The route to impact through cultural change is perhaps of even more significance in the long term. Our cohort will be highly diverse, an outcome driven by our wide catchment in terms of academic background, giving them a 'diversity edge'. The cultural change that is enabled by this powerful cohort will have a profound impact, facilitating a move away from 'business as usual'.

The research outputs of the CDT will have impact in two important fields - the products produced and processes used within the indsutry. The academic team leading and operating this CDT have a long track record of generating impact through the application of their research outputs to industrially relevant problems. This understanding is embodied in the design of our CDT and has already begun in the definition of the training programmes and research themes that will meet the future needs of our industry and international partners. Exchange of people is the surest way to achieve lasting and deep exchange of expertise and ideas. The students will undertake placements at the collaborating companies and will lead to employment of the graduates in partner companies.

The CDT is an integral part of the IAAPS initiative. The IAAPS Business Case highlights the need to develop and train suitably skilled and qualified engineers in order to achieve, over the first five years of IAAPS' operations, an additional £70 million research and innovation expenditure, creating an additional turnover of £800 million for the automotive sector, £221 million in GVA and 1,900 new highly productive jobs.

The CDT is designed to deliver transformational impact for our industrial partners and the automotive sector in general. The impact is wider than this, since the products and services that our partners produce have a fundamental part to play in the way we organise our lives in a modern society. The impact on the developing world is even more profound. The rush to mobility across the developing world, the increasing spending power of a growing global middle class, the move to more urban living and the increasingly urgent threat of climate change combine to make the impact of the work we do directly relevant to more people than ever before. This CDT can help change the world by effecting the change that needs to happen in our industry.