Overview
- CB&I completed the first fill of its 20 cubic meter demonstration tank and integrated it into NASA’s Marshall Hydrogen Test Facility to begin real‑world performance testing.
- The tank triples the facility’s LH2 storage capacity and can be refilled as often as once per day to accelerate repeated thermal‑cycle experiments on the insulation system.
- The demo uses non‑vacuum insulation, which aims to limit heat ingress without the complex vacuum jacket systems that raise capital costs for very large tanks.
- NASA, CB&I, Shell, GenH2 and the University of Houston will collect multi‑cycle boil‑off, durability and operational data over coming months to assess commercial viability.
- Results will determine whether the approach can lower upfront costs for large hydrogen hubs, influence codes and permits, and affect long‑term maintenance and boil‑off trade‑offs for operators.