Imagine trying to fit a round balloon into a square box; you waste a lot of space. This project creates fuel tanks that can be shaped to fit perfectly into the odd gaps of a plane's body. They use high-tech plastics and composites instead of heavy metals to keep the plane light and the super-cold hydrogen stable.
Current hydrogen tanks are bulky cylinders that waste aircraft space and add excessive weight. This prevents the efficient adoption of zero-emission hydrogen flight.
A design for a conformal, vacuum-insulated composite LH2 tank. Deliverables include high-level requirements (HLRO), general requirements (GRO), and thermomechanical models for pressure and boil-off management.
If you are an aircraft manufacturer dealing with limited fuselage space for fuel — this project developed conformal composite tanks that increase space occupancy and reduce system weight. This allows for more fuel capacity without increasing the aircraft's external size.
If you are a carrier dealing with high operational costs and emissions — this project developed a storage system targeting a 20+ year service life. This ensures long-term reliability for hydrogen-powered fleets.
If you are a supplier dealing with slow and expensive production cycles — this project developed fabrication technologies that reduce production time by at least 50%. This significantly lowers manufacturing costs for complex tank shapes.
The project aims to lower manufacturing costs by reducing production energy consumption by more than 60% and production time by at least 50%.
The project is targeting TRL4 by 2026, meaning it is currently at the laboratory validation stage and not yet ready for full industrial scale.
Based on available project data, specific licensing terms are not mentioned, but the project is led by Collins Aerospace with a consortium of 11 partners.
The system uses Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) and Prognostic Health Monitoring (PHM) to assess integrity and remaining useful life over a 20+ year service period.
The multi-material thermoplastic composite concept is designed to facilitate structural integration into the fuselage or empennage to reduce overall system weight.
The project is heavily industry-driven, with 8 industrial partners representing 73% of the 11-member consortium. Led by a major aerospace player (Collins Aerospace), the group spans 7 countries (FR, IE, IT, NL, PL, UK, US), indicating a strong commercial interest in the results and a high likelihood of industrial application over pure academic research.
Contact Collins Aerospace Ireland, Limited
Contact us to find partners for TRL 5-6 scaling of composite LH2 tanks.
