GAIKER researches new technologies for hydrogen storage and transport

The ONTZHI project is working on the development of new materials for the storage and transport of hydrogen gas and new methods for characterising the interaction of hydrogen with storage and transport infrastructure materials.

The GAIKER Technology Centre, a member of the Basque Research & Technology Alliance, BRTA, is participating in the “Key technologies for hydrogen storage and transport, ONTZHI” project, the aim of which is to research technologies and solutions for hydrogen storage and transport that are safer, more compact, cost-effective and sustainable.

The European Union aims to achieve a 55% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2023 and to achieve emission neutrality by 2050. The use of green hydrogen can be a solution, as it is a 100% clean energy source that is energy efficient, produces no gases and the only waste it generates is water. But this requires safe and cost-effective storage and transport on a large scale to ensure its economic competitiveness.
Hydrogen can currently be stored and transported as a gas under pressure in tanks and pipelines or as a liquid in cryogenic tanks, but due to its physicochemical properties, which are quite different from those of other fuels, the development of these technologies is difficult and advances in research are needed to develop infrastructures to enable its transport and storage.
In order to respond to this situation, the ONTZHI project, financed by the Basque Government (ELKARTEK programme), will begin in 2023, which seeks to find solutions for the storage and transport of hydrogen, developing new materials and new strategies to protect materials against the degrading effect of this chemical element.
The aim of this project is to improve the resistance of tank and pipeline materials, reduce weight and cost, increase the safety and sustainability of storage and transport systems and research and generate knowledge on the limits of metallic materials in their interaction with hydrogen. As a result, two laboratory-scale demonstrators will be developed, one for hydrogen barrier coatings and the other for a type IV H2 storage tank based on recyclable polymers, as well as a computational model that will be used to define and develop simplified characterisation methods.

GAIKER focuses its activity mainly on providing solutions for mobility tanks. It is working both on the design and research of in situ polymerisable thermoplastic materials with hydrogen barrier properties, for the manufacture of liners by rotomoulding and wrapping by filament winding of type IV hydrogen tanks, and on the design and research of thermoplastic composites in tape format for the manufacture of wrapping with robotised tape winding technology.

ONTZHI aims to improve the scientific-technological and commercial positioning of the Basque Science, Technology and Innovation Network (RVCTi) and Basque companies in the hydrogen sector and in particular in green hydrogen transport and storage technologies.