FOCUS Recyclable and competitive hydrogen tanks MADE FROM ELIUM® What does Elium resin offer for composite hydrogen tanks? What stage® of development are you at? Which companies are involved? Answers with Patrice Gaillard, Arkema's Scientific Director and President of CANOE. “With Elium, composite® What does Elium resin offer for tanks?® hydrogen tanks are stronger, P.G. – Recyclability and improved productivity. Being able to recycle a tank is a big plus. Currently, recyclable and easier to used epoxy resin tanks that can't be recycled are taken to landfill or recovered as solid recovered produce.” fuels, primarily for heating cement works. Elium® Patrice Gaillard resin doesn't damage the tank’s carbon fibers during manufacture and use. During the recycling phase, through dissolution, both the resin and the carbon fibers are recovered, and they account for 77% of the tank price. So an Elium resin tank® offers real advantages: improved productivity during manufacture, recycling, as well as impressive solidity What are the development prospects of and durability. the composite hydrogen tank market? Patrice Gaillard – Promising! Public authorities Exactly how is the performance of an in Europe and some elsewhere in the world are Elium resin tank better than that of an® making green hydrogen—produced from renewable epoxy tank? energies—one of their priorities for diversifying theirP.G. – We absolutely can't compromise on energy production sources. The aim is to reduce performance, because of safety. Mixing Elium resin® greenhouse gas emissions and limit climate change, with carbon ensures that the tank is as impermeable and this concerns the transportation sector in particular.as one containing epoxy resin. The challenge is to Hydrogen vehicle production is set to take off. In 2030ensure mechanical resistance to hydrogen pressure of in France, we expect to have 300,000 light vehicles, 700 bar. We have even managed to produce Elium® Patrice Gaillard 5,000 heavy vehicles, 250 trains and 1,000 boats tanks that are resistant to pressure of over 1,500 bar, running on hydrogen. Worldwide, it is estimated which means that they can contain a larger quantity that 10 to 15 million light vehicles could switch toof hydrogen. Elium resin also improves the tank’s® hydrogen by 2030. mechanical properties, and extends its working life. In theory, an Elium composite hydrogen tank needs® What types of tanks are currently on to last for thirty years. the market? P.G. – The most widely used material is epoxy What stage of development are you at? resin. This thermoset resin offers excellent mechanicalP.G. – At the trial stage, with tanks due to come resistance to contain hydrogen pressure and helps onto the market in 2024. Arkema’s teams at the Lacq to reduce the weight of the tanks, which in previous research center in southwest France are conducting generations were made from metal. We currently these trials with the scientific association CANOE, have a type 4 tank made from carbon fiber and which has expertise in the various composite epoxy resin wound around a liner. But epoxy—like manufacturing technologies, and industrial groups all thermoset composites—also has its disadvantages, involved in tank wrapping. CANOE is specifically mainly its non-recyclability. 22