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Forvia (Nanterre, France) is reportedly the world’s seventh largest automotive technology company, comprising the Faurecia and Hella brands. In its and , Forvia describes its developments and strategy for enabling the clean mobility transition. Forvia’s display at IAA Transportation 2022 (Hanover, Germany, September 20-25, 2022) included various hydrogen (H₂) drivetrain and storage solutions, including hydrogen storage tanks using thermoset and thermoplastic composites.

In terms of heavy-duty fuel cell vehicles, Forvia reports it is able to provide to its customers the full hydrogen drivetrain, including a complete 700 bar H₂ storage system (storing up to 80 kilograms of compressed gaseous hydrogen, CGH₂) and Symbio’s 150-kilowatt fuel-cell stack. This storage is achievable by combining five Type IV CGH₂ tanks in a behind-the-cab module and two maximized side-mounted XL tanks (700 millimeters in diameter and 2,500 millimeters long).

Forvia also introduced, for the first time, its Cryogenic Hydrogen Storage solution developed by Faurecia, highlighting the innovative capabilities of the company. Leveraging the higher energy density of liquid hydrogen (LH₂), Forvia and Faurecia reportedly offer a compact storage solution that enables the same quantity of H₂ to be stored within a 40% reduced volume (versus 700-bar CGH₂ tanks), facilitating vehicle integration and maximizing the quantity of H₂ onboard. It is suited for intensive usage (low idle time) and large autonomy (long driving times without stopping) of up to 1,000 kilometers. This subcooled liquid hydrogen (sLH₂) storage system is co-developed with Air Liquide (Paris, France).

The company also exhibited both sustainable and smart tanks, explaining in its press release: “These innovations will enable both recyclable tanks, with thermoplastic [composite] solutions, and safety enhancement through structure integrity monitoring.”

Additionally, Forvia presented its containerized H₂ storage solution, adapted for industrial applications and fleet management, including H₂ transportation and distribution (refueling stations). By providing these lightweight and competitive solutions to H₂ ecosystems worldwide, Forvia says it is reinforcing its position as a key player in the H₂ value chain and enabler of clean mobility.

 

XL-tanks for HD trucks

Forvia stressed its commitment to sustainable mobility and noted its position as a pioneer in H₂ trucks, reportedly equipping the first H₂ truck in the world, Hyundai’s (Seoul, South Korea) X-Cient, on the road since 2021 using Faurecia’s 350- bar Type IV CGH₂ storage tanks. To maximize driving range and to comply with higher pressure needs, Forvia reports Faurecia has developed 700-bar tanks for truck applications which deliver almost 80% higher H₂ capacity than 350 bar tanks.

The new XL-Type IV composite tanks have been developed to comply with side- and belt-mounted installation, sized with an external diameter of 550 to 700 millimeters and length up to 2,500 millimeters with a storage weight ratio (mass of H₂/mass of storage tank) of more than 7% at 700 bar pressure.

XL-tanks can be installed alone or in groups and in combination with a vertical storage system mounted behind the truck cabin, in the case of U.S. truck configurations, for example. These tanks extend Faurecia’s already established capability in Type IV carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) tanks for light commercial vehicles (Forvia supplies the complete hydrogen system for Stellantis’ Opel Vivaro which is on the road since 2021) and trucks (Forvia supplies the complete hydrogen storage system for Hyundai X-Cient since last year).

LH₂ as option in storage portfolio

In its Sept. 6, 2022 online co-written article,  , Air Liquide (Paris, France) and Faurecia note that heavy-duty truck transportation accounts for 6% of CO₂ emissions. Since LH₂ is twice as dense as CGH₂ (at 350 bar), it allows much more fuel to be stored onboard — up to 80 kilograms for a range of up to 1,000 kilometers. “Faurecia already supplies heavy-duty vehicle manufacturers with gaseous hydrogen,” explains Pauline Chartier, director of strategy and partnerships at Faurecia. “What we are looking for with Air Liquide is to add liquid hydrogen to our portfolio of hydrogen storage solutions, which will of course increase vehicle range, while also maintaining the flexibility that is currently provided by combustion-based solutions.” The latter include internal combustion engines (ICEs) being commercialized by a number of companies worldwide, such as Cummins (Columbus, Indiana, U.S.).

By 2030, Forvia estimates that over 20% of annual H₂ vehicle production will be commercial vehicles (excluding light commercial vehicles). In an , Faurecia announced its partnership with Air Liquide to develop LH₂ storage. Air Liquide’s online article, co-written with Faurecia, states that the sLH₂ tank developed with Faurecia, currently in the prototype phase, is scheduled “to hit the market in 2027.” Challenges for both partners to overcome during this time period, the article explains, include “standardizing the dedicated LH₂ supply chain (stations, connectors, tanks, etc.)  and scaling up a highly complicated technology (creating and maintaining a vacuum in the tanks, initiating large-scale production).”

The partnership aims to produce and market tens of thousands of tanks and install them in vehicles by 2030. To meet the world’s goals for reduced CO₂ emissions, a sufficiently large portion of the heavy-duty transportation market must convert to zero-emissions technologies, with LH₂ a well-suited option.

But the technology is still at a relatively low level of maturity. Faurecia estimates that <5% of hydrogen heavy duty vehicles running on H₂ will do so using LH₂ by 2035. This percentage should increase significantly, however, beyond 2035.

 

Subcooled versus cryo-compressed

In Part 2 of the online article titled, “,” the two partners explain that the technology being developed will be based on sLH₂ at a maximum pressure of about 20 bar in the tank. The temperature range for sLH₂ has been defined by another partnership developing this technology — Daimler Truck (Stuttgart, Germany) and Linde (Dublin, Ireland) — as between the LH₂ boiling point of -253°C and -245°C, maintained by vacuum and multilayer insulation (MLI) between the inner and outer tanks, with no active (powered) cooling.

Another option is cryo-compressed H₂ storage (CcH₂), but Air Liquide and Faurecia prefer sLH₂, which they say offers a good compromise between user cost, time to market and performance-use balance whereas CcH₂, they believe, will be more expensive and take longer to develop.

CcH₂ was developed for automotive by BMW (Munich, Germany, reports published from 2006-2013), now carried forward by Cryomotive (Taufkirchen, Germany) using an insulated CFRP tank system. BMW reported using 350-bar pressure and temperature between -233°C and -193°C. Cryomotive plans to store 80 kilograms of H₂ in two insulated tanks by either cryo-compressing LH₂ or by cryo-cooling gaseous H₂ (GH₂), delivering GH₂ at up to 30 bar for fuel cell and ICE powertrains.

 

Smart and sustainable CFRP tanks

To meet its goals of being carbon net-zero by 2045 and providing the safest products possible, Forvia reports Faurecia is developing “a smart and sustainable carbon fiber composite structure” combining:

• Upgraded composite with higher mechanical strength and carbon fiber with lower CO₂ footprint carbon fiber, enabling up to -30% of CO₂ emissions.
• Innovative tank production processes to ensure recyclability.
• Smart sensing system to reinforce safety in use by detection of critical events as well as optimized operating periods and downtimes via tank structural integrity monitoring.