Estimation of Costs and Environmental Impacts of a Cryogenic H2 Tank

Kurzfassung

Aviation faces major challenges in meeting EU decarbonization goals, and liquid hydrogen is a promising alternative fuel. This study evaluates the environmental and economic performance of composite liquid hydrogen tanks for aircraft. A combined Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) approach was applied to two tank configurations from the HyStor and TACOMA projects, based on Automated Fiber Placement (AFP) manufacturing data. Results show that tooling dominates prototype costs but becomes negligible in serial production, enabling reductions of up to 89. The AFP process and carbon-fiber prepreg material are the main environmental impact drivers. Despite these, the lightweight composite design can offset its production footprint through operational fuel savings.