DELFIN project develops pressure tanks for hydrogen storage with reduced costs and weight Parliamentary State Secretary Steffen Bilger hands over funding notice totalling 7.5 million euros from the National Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology Innovation Programme
The deployment of hydrogen and fuel cell technology as an alternative drive concept in the transport sector is currently unable to compete with other technologies such as batteries or classic combustion engines due to the significantly higher costs involved. The high costs of pressure tanks for hydrogen storage represent a major barrier to establishing such systems on the market. The Delfin project aims to address this problem by developing a pressure tank with reduced costs and weight. The project is funded within the scope of the National Innovation Programme Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology (NIP). NOW GmbH is responsible for coordinating the NIP programme.
Steffen Bilger, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI – Bundesministerium für Verkehr und digitale Infrastruktur), today in Berlin presented the project partners with the notification of funding approval amounting to around 7.5 million euros. He commented: “This project is a milestone on the path to fuel cell vehicles that will provide customers with the long range they are accustomed to at a marketable price. We must continue to work consistently on creating the technological and production conditions for the commercial introduction of fuel cell vehicles in Germany and Europe in order to make the switch to alternative fuels successful on a large scale”.
The project partners – Ford, BMW and NuCellSys – as well as the involved suppliers NPROXX, Elkamet Kunststofftechnik, Teijin Carbon Europe, engineering service provider ISATEC and, on the public side, the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM – Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung) and the Institute for Plastics Processing (IKV – Institut für Kunststoffverarbeitung) at RWTH Aachen University have joined forces to develop and test innovative design and manufacturing concepts as well as materials. The composition of the consortium represents the entire value chain of the pressure tank: from the manufacture of the individual components and their assembly to their suitability for use in fuel cell-powered vehicles. This is further supported by the participating research institutions, which are supporting the various stages of the value chain with their understanding of materials, process know-how and experience in testing. The participation of the OEMs BMW and Ford, as well as NuCellSys as a 100% subsidiary of Daimler, also promotes international competitiveness. The suppliers NPROXX, Elkamet Kunststofftechnik and Teijin Carbon Europe are increasing their competitiveness at a national level by strengthening the supplier industry in Germany.