Supporting next-generation hydrogen storage tanks, developing graphene-enhanced liners for H2 storage.

HydroGraph UK and the Centre of Expertise in Advanced Materials and Sustainability (CEAMS) have collaborated to develop lighter and thinner graphene-enhanced polymer liners for next-generation hydrogen storage tanks.

CEAMS is an ongoing collaboration between NPL, the Rochdale Development Agency (RDA), the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI), the Henry Royce Institute, the National Composites Centre (NCC) and the University of Manchester.

Storage systems remain too heavy and expensive to compete at scale and this is a significant barrier to widespread adoption. Type IV tanks, the standard for transport applications, are dominated in cost and weight by their carbon fibre overwrap. The polymer liner at their core presents its own unsolved challenge: nylon liners are vulnerable to brittle failure, blistering under rapid decompression and degradation under repeated pressure cycling. Addressing these durability failures is essential to unlocking a lighter, cheaper tank system overall.

HydroGraph UK is developing graphene-enhanced nylon compounds to tackle these failure modes directly and engaged with CEAMS for specialist testing infrastructure and expertise needed to comprehensively characterise their graphene-enhanced nylon compounds. The testing programme spanned the full range of failure modes known to affect nylon liners in service, including mechanical performance, creep, fatigue and low temperature behaviour alongside evaluation of the effect of graphene dispersion within the nylon.

This breadth of characterisation is critical as a graphene-enhanced compound that improves barrier properties but compromises mechanical integrity, or that performs well at ambient temperature but fails at low temperature, would not represent a viable solution. The CEAMS consortium capabilities have enabled HydroGraph to build a complete performance profile of their novel materials.

The work is expected to deliver the first comprehensively characterised graphene-enhanced nylon compound validated across the key mechanical failure modes of Type IV hydrogen tank liners. In the short term, this should enable thinner, more durable liners that are easier to manufacture without polymer degradation. In the longer term, improved mechanical performance together with evaluating barrier properties could justify meaningful reductions in carbon fibre overwrap, directly addressing the dominant cost and weight driver in Type IV tank systems.

If validated, this would represent a significant step forward for hydrogen storage technology, reducing system cost, improving gravimetric efficiency, and supporting the commercial viability of hydrogen as a transport fuel.

Tony Maxwell, Higher Scientist, NPL said: “At NPL, we are developing the advanced measurement techniques that are needed to unlock the future of hydrogen innovation. Through CEAMS, we’ve been able to bring this expertise to bear, generating the robust performance data companies like HydroGraph need to shape the next generation of materials for the storage of hydrogen.”

Dr. Suhao Li, Lab Director, HydroGraph UKsaid: "Working with CEAMS has given us access to the precise measurement capabilities we needed to validate our graphene-enhanced liner technology. This collaboration is a critical step in bringing a genuinely transformative material to the hydrogen storage market."