A hydrogen storage tank for a hydrogen fueled aircraft. The tank has a wall made of layers of aerogel sections around a hard shell layer, sealed within a flexible outer layer, and having the air removed to form a vacuum. The periphery of each layer section abuts other sections of that layer, but only overlies the periphery of the sections of other layers at individual points. The wall is characterized by a thermal conductivity that is lower near its gravitational top than its gravitational bottom. The tank has two exit passageways, one being direct, and the other passing through a vapor shield that extends through the wall between two layers of aerogel. A control system controls the relative flow through the two passages to regulate the boil-off rate of the tank.

The conformable pressure vessel having: a plurality of individual pressure vessels, the individual pressure vessels each having an outer wall enclosing an inner volume. The inner volumes are fluidly connected to each other. The individual pressures vessels are oriented parallel to each other.

Disclosed are articles useful as the body of a container for containing gas under pressure, and containers which comprise the articles to which are affixed valves to control the flow of gas out of the container, wherein the articles comprise a hollow container body, having an external surface and having an opening through which gas can enter or leave the interior of the hollow container body; optionally but preferably a layer of fiber-reinforced polymer around the exterior of the container body, and an external layer of elastomer around and sealed to the external surface of the layer of fiber-reinforced polymer if present or else to the cylinder body.

The invention relates to a container for holding and storing liquids and viscous materials, in particular cryogenic fluids, comprising a jacket (12), which defines the interior (14) of the container (10) having a chamber (16), said container (10) being constituted of at least two container structures (20, 20′, 20″) and each of said at least two container structures (20, 20′, 20″) being formed as one piece from a blank (32) and having a dome portion (22), a branching portion (24), which is contiguous to the dome portion (22), and two cylinder portions (26, 28; 26′, 28′), which are contiguous to the branching portion (24), and the mutually facing container structures (20, 20; 20′, 20″) which are adjacent to each other being joined together.

A storage vessel can include a shell that is formed by fibers wound about an axis and infused with a resin matrix. The resin matrix can include metal nanoparticles coated with a polymer and distributed within a resin. The nanoparticles provide low coefficients of thermal expansion, and the polymer coatings enhance their bonding with the resin The shells of such storage vessels provide increased tensile strength and modulus at both room and cryogenic temperatures. Such improvements stem from the higher interfacial residual thermal stress at cryogenic temperature due to their low thermal expansion properties, which in turn promotes crack branching that increases the energy dissipation of the matrix.

A transport container for helium, with an inner container for receiving the helium, a coolant container for receiving a cryogenic liquid (N.sub.2), an outer container, in which the inner container and the coolant container are contained, a thermal shield, in which the inner container is contained and which can be actively cooled with the aid of a liquid phase of the cryogenic liquid (LN.sub.2), the thermal shield having at least one first cooling line, in which the liquid phase of the cryogenic liquid can be received for actively cooling the thermal shield, and an insulating element, which is arranged between the outer container and the thermal shield and which can be actively cooled with the aid of a gaseous phase of the cryogenic liquid (GN.sub.2), the insulating element having at least one second cooling line, in which the gaseous phase of the cryogenic liquid can be received.

An integrated pressure regulator is provided with three stages configured to reduce an extreme tank pressure down to a typical working pressure. The regulator is configured to supply a steady working pressure until the tank pressure is reduced to little more than the working pressure itself. Stages of the pressure regulator are integrated into a body and arranged to minimize regulator mass and volume. A thermally-triggered pressure relief device may be included with a triggering time adapted to enhance the safety of smaller cylinders that may be used, e.g., in aerial applications.

A composite pressure vessel that includes a monolayer liner and a reinforcing structure arranged on top of the liner. The liner is made by injection moulding and includes at least two shells weldable together. Each shell is made of a polymer composition including at least 45% by weight of an aromatic polyamide relative to the total weight of the polymer composition, and at least 10% by weight of an aliphatic polyamide relative to the total weight of the polymer composition.

The present disclosure relates to a vacuum heat-insulation device for a large low-temperature tank, the vacuum heat-insulation device having excellent heat insulation properties and vacuum stability by using a low-temperature heat-insulating material maintained in a vacuum at all times so as to store an ultra-low-temperature liquefied gas such as liquid nitrogen (LN.sub.2) or liquid hydrogen (LH.sub.2), and to a vacuum heat-insulation device for a low-temperature tank, the vacuum heat-insulation device having a flexible structure in which a vacuum jacket is partially contractible according to contraction of a low-temperature tank or a low-temperature heat-insulating layer.

The present invention is a pressure tank comprising a tubular part and two bottoms (5) with the bottoms (5) positioned at the ends of the tubular part. The tubular part comprises a cylindrical wall (1) and a ply of circumferential reinforcing elements (2) wound around cylindrical wall (1). The elastic modulus of the material of cylindrical wall (1) is less than the elastic modulus of the material of the first ply of circumferential reinforcing elements (2). The invention also relates to an energy storage and recovery system comprising a compressor, an expansion device, a heat storage and a compressed air tank according to the aforementioned characteristics.