CB&I with Shell International Exploration and Production, Inc., GenH2 and the University of Houston recently completed an affordable, large-scale liquid hydrogen (LH2) storage tank concept at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama.
The project, announced in 2021 and supported by the US Department of Energy (DOE), developed a novel non-vacuum tank design concept for large-scale storage of LH2 of up to 100,000 cubic meters. This is anticipated to provide a substantial cost advantage over conventional vacuum insulated tanks. The concept is being demonstrated through the construction, startup and testing of a small-scale LH2 demonstration tank at NASA MSFC.
The demonstration tank will significantly increase the MSFC hydrogen test facility’s LH2 storage capacity and be used to characterize the behavior of materials under cryogenic conditions, mimicking normal fill and empty cycles and testing non-vacuum insulation materials. In addition to an estimated six-month test period included in the project scope, a Space Act Agreement among the partner organizations provides for MSFC’s use of the tank over a five-year period during which CB&I and Shell will continue to test new insulation technologies under non-vacuum conditions.