Innovative Composite Winding Technology for CNG Storage in the Automotive Industry

In the automotive industry, natural gas is currently stored as CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) in cylindrical high-pressure tanks. In order to increase the range of vehicles, the available design space needs to be used more efficiently. The modular, shape adaptable, cellular high-pressure storage tank “CNG-DLR-Wabentank” shows the potential for increasing the range of CNG vehicles while reducing CO2 emissions compared to diesel or petrol vehicles. The innovation presented here uses an innovative composite winding technology (polar winding of non-rotationally symmetric cells and 3D-winding) to produce the first ever fully manufactured modular and free shapeable high-pressure vessel, offering 30% more available volume.