CB&I Fills First Non-Vacuum Liquid Hydrogen Tank at NASA Center

CB&I has completed the first fill of a pioneering non-vacuum liquid hydrogen (LH2) storage demonstration tank in Alabama. The project seeks to prove that non-vacuum insulation can provide a more affordable, scalable alternative to traditional cryogenic storage methods.

Integrated into NASA's Hydrogen Test Facility (HTF) at the Marshall Space Flight Center, the tank is the result of a collaboration between CB&I and a consortium including Shell, GenH2, and the University of Houston. Supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, the project began in 2021. Under a Space Act Agreement, NASA MSFC will utilize the demonstration tank for five years to rigorously test these new insulation technologies. The design concept is ambitious, targeting future large-scale storage capacities of up to 100,000 cubic meters.

The Cryogenic Challenge

Liquid hydrogen is essential for both deep-space exploration and the emerging global hydrogen economy, but it requires extreme cryogenic temperatures to remain liquid. Traditionally, this has necessitated expensive vacuum-insulated tanks to prevent heat leak and boil-off. While effective, the high capital cost of vacuum systems creates a significant financial barrier to deploying hydrogen infrastructure at the scale required for industrial use.

CB&I is leveraging decades of experience to solve this bottleneck. The company has a 60-year history with NASA, having built the agency's first LH2 sphere—with a capacity of 170 cubic meters—in the 1960s. More recently, CB&I completed a 5,000 cubic meter LH2 tank in 2022 at the Kennedy Space Center to support the Artemis program. This latest demonstration represents a shift toward eliminating the vacuum requirement entirely to reduce costs.

Implications for Global Trade

Reducing the capital expenditure for LH2 storage is viewed as a primary hurdle for the commercialization of hydrogen. If non-vacuum insulation proves viable at scale, it could fundamentally change the economics of the energy transition. According to Dr. Ramanan Krishnamoorti, VP of Energy and Innovation at the University of Houston, the ability to store liquid hydrogen using a non-vacuum design is a "pivotal advancement" that could enable a more flexible and affordable global trade infrastructure.

Mark Butts, President and CEO of CB&I, stated that the collaboration provides a clear path toward achieving low-cost, large-scale liquid hydrogen storage. Such a breakthrough would significantly lower the costs associated with the international import and export of hydrogen, accelerating the shift toward hydrogen-based fuels.

Next Steps

Over the next five years, the consortium and NASA will monitor the tank's performance to determine if the non-vacuum insulation can maintain the necessary temperatures without the prohibitive costs of vacuum systems. The success of this demonstration will determine if the 100,000 cubic meter target is feasible for commercial deployment in the global energy market.