KonveGas Joins Swedish LH₂-Tanks Project to Pioneer Lightweight Composite Vessels for Liquid Hydrogen in Aviation

In a major stride toward climate‑neutral aviation, KonveGas Composites recently contributed to the LH₂‑Tanks project, a collaborative Swedish initiative led by RISE, with partners including Chalmers University, Linköping University, and Oxeon. The project focuses on developing lightweight, linerless composite tanks for cryogenic liquid hydrogen (LH₂) intended for future fossil‑free aircraft  .

Project Overview: Toward Fossil-Free Flight

The LH₂‑Tanks project aimed to overcome the immense challenges posed by storing hydrogen at extreme cold (~–253 °C). This requires tanks that can withstand intense thermal stresses, deformations, and property changes in materials under cryogenic conditions  .

KonveGas’s role was particularly focused on laying the groundwork for future large scale production of filament‑wound composite gas tanks suitable for vehicle and aerospace applications  .

Innovative Design: Linerless Composite Tanks with Additive End Caps

• The team successfully designed and built a linerless composite cylindrical tank using wet filament winding of thin ply composite bands, combined with titanium end caps manufactured via additive manufacturing  .

• Cryogenic testing included over 20 cycles of filling and emptying with liquid nitrogen simulating LH₂ operations and a final burst test reaching nearly 30 bar. The tanks showed no damage or leaks over the cycles  .

Why This Matters for Aviation and Beyond

• Weight Savings & Simplicity: Eliminating internal liners reduces weight and complexity, a critical advantage for aircraft design.

• Cryogenic Resilience: The thin‑ply composite approach successfully mitigated matrix cracking at ultra‑low temperatures.

• Industrial Pathway: KonveGas’s involvement ensures that these advanced composite vessel designs can be translated into mass‑manufacturable solutions for energy storage and mobility.

Advancing Sustainable Flight

The project represents a decisive step toward enabling fossil‑free aviation, aligning with Sweden’s national climate objectives and global decarbonization targets. The innovation of linerless, filament‑wound composites backed by rigorous Swedish engineering promises high performance and manufacturability, key to scaling the technology for future aircraft fleets