【Ten Years of Rapid Development in Chemical Equipment】From 2086 to 2024, CIMC Suntain designed and manufactured China’s first commercial liquid hydrogen sphere tank; construction began in Fuyang

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Give praise and encouragement to the achievements made in China’s chemical engineering technology and equipment; your participation in discussions is the greatest encouragement. **********************【Ten Years of Great Development in Chemical Engineering Equipment】Continuous updates and summaries are available – feel free to join the discussions: https://bbs.hcbbs.com/thread-3576046-1-1.html (Source: Haichuan Chemical Engineering Forum) ***************** Multiple key technical challenges have been overcome. Liquid hydrogen storage and transportation technology is one of the core technologies in global strategic competition, and it belongs to those strategic emerging industry technologies that are crucial for progress. Liquid hydrogen has an extremely low boiling point; therefore, storing hydrogen in liquid form imposes high requirements on the reliability of the equipment. Achieving the commercialization of liquid hydrogen storage tanks has been a key challenge that China has been eager to address for many years; therefore, the successful development of the first commercial liquid hydrogen storage tank is of milestone significance and holds great social value. According to news from March 15, 2024, the first commercial liquid hydrogen sphere tank in China, designed and developed by Zhangjiagang CIMC Suntain Cryogenic Equipment Co., Ltd. (referred to as \"CIMC Suntain\”), which is part of CIMC Enric’s liquid hydrogen business unit, began construction in Fuyang, Anhui Province. This milestone project represents another significant step forward for CIMC Cryo-Tech in the field of liquid hydrogen storage and transportation equipment, laying a solid foundation for the rapid development of China’s hydrogen energy industry. It is reported that the liquid hydrogen tank in this project is a double-layer vacuum spherical vessel with a total volume of 400 cubic meters; it can hold more than 25 tons of liquid hydrogen. It constitutes one of the key components of the project \"Research on Key Equipment and Safety Aspects for the Production, Storage, Transportation, and Refueling of Liquid Hydrogen\", which is part of the **Key Research and Development Program on \"Renewable Energy and Hydrogen Technologies\". Due to the properties of liquid hydrogen, such as ultra-low temperatures, high vaporization tendency, as well as strong permeability and diffusivity, high demands are placed on the equipment used for its storage and transportation. To ensure the successful commissioning of China’s first liquid hydrogen sphere tank, CIMC Cryotec overcame numerous technical challenges, including material selection at ultra-low temperatures, ultra-low temperature welding, structural and insulation design under large temperature differences, wrapping insulation materials under harsh on-site construction conditions, as well as achieving and maintaining a high vacuum level. Compared to fixed vacuum storage tanks for liquid hydrogen manufactured in factories, spherical tanks for liquid hydrogen can be built at the site of use. They make it easier to increase their volume, allow for a reduced number of hydrogen storage containers required, and lower the overall construction costs. With advantages such as large storage capacity and high storage efficiency, they can meet the demands for large-scale storage and supply of liquid hydrogen. They can be used in liquid hydrogen factories, large-scale liquid hydrogen storage stations, space launch sites, and ocean transportation, serving customers in industries such as the energy sector, chemical synthesis industry, and metallurgy industry. Therefore, commercial liquid hydrogen spheres are essential core equipment for achieving large-scale hydrogen storage and supply, and they represent a key link in the large-scale commercial hydrogen industry chain.