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IMT Nord Europe (Douai, France), a French Graduate School of Engineering affiliated with the Institut Mines-Télécom and a partner of the University of Lille, has received a €10 million grant from the European Commission to implement the “EConomic manufacturing process of recyclable composite materials for durable HYDROgen storage” (ECOHYDRO) project.

Funded as part of the Horizon funding program for research and innovation, this international project aims to develop a new recyclable thermoplastic resin with specific functionalities (i.e., self-repairability and fire resistance); a new, more cost-effective filament winding process to manufacture hydrogen tanks; digital models to predict the residual life of tanks using structural health monitoring (SHM) technology via built-in sensors and artificial intelligence algorithms; and new composite recycling technology to recover carbon fibers from tanks at their end of life (EOL) for reuse to manufacture new parts.

It should be noted that for several years, the IMT Nord Europe and IMT Mines Alès teams have been collaborating with Arkema on the deployment of a recyclable resin with low viscosity, Elium. Thus, its implementation in composite reservoirs constitutes a significant part of the ECOHYDRO project, which, of course, also affects the filament winding development and additiona functionalities mentioned above. 

Moreover, several manufacturers, such as Arkema, Airbus and Temsa (Skoda group) are associated with it in order to achieve the objective of producing a certain number of specific and concrete demonstrators. Three developments are planned for the storage or conveyance of gaseous hydrogen: in stations (like petrol stations), in convoy trucks and for transport between different storage locations. The consortium also aims to develop a fourth demonstrator for the aviation sector, dedicated to the storage of hydrogen in cryogenic liquid form.

This project will be conducted in collaboration with 14 academic and industrial partners from seven countries (see more below). It began in January 2024 and will run for a period of 4 years. Chung-Hae Park, professor at IMT Nord Europe at the Center for Education, Research and Innovation (CERI) Materials and Processes, will lead team and ensure the coordination of ECOHYDRO.