The Royal Dutch DSM Group, a global science company active in the fields of health, nutrition and materials, works closely with gas cylinder manufacturers to manufacture CNG-IV compressed natural gas bottles lined with Akulon® Fuel Lock nylon 6 This makes it possible to make smaller, smarter, safer and more efficient car cylinder systems, eliminating a major obstacle in the process of “oil-to-gas”.

The use of compressed natural gas (CNG) instead of gasoline is recognized as a more environmentally friendly fuel solution, reducing carbon emissions by more than 15% and lowering the cost per day. However, CNG cylinders make gas vehicles inevitably increase their own weight, thereby increasing carbon dioxide emissions. How to reduce the weight of natural gas cylinders has become a difficult problem that must be solved in the important environmentally friendly process of “oil to gas”. In recent years, CNG bottles have made some progress in plastic-based steel work, using high-density polyethylene (HDPE) as the lining material of CNG-IV full-wrapped bottles, which can reduce weight compared with traditional CNG-I steel cylinders. About 1/3-2/3, but the air tightness and low permeability (methane penetration) of HDPE bottles cannot meet the further requirements of the regulations. Lightweight and zero infiltration is the highest standard that the gas cylinder industry has long pursued.

DSM's technical team has been working closely with gas cylinder manufacturers to help cylinder manufacturers develop smaller, smarter, safer and more efficient car cylinder systems through their innovative material solutions. After the unremitting efforts and continuous improvement of both parties, we finally used DSM Akulon® Fuel Lock Nylon 6 material to create a CNG-IV full-wrapped bottle with excellent performance. Its permeability is 150 times lower than that of HDPE, and compared with HDPE. The cylinders are further weight-reduced so that they can be used not only in ordinary passenger cars, but also in the manufacture of large cylinders up to 2 meters in capacity of 45 liters. The CNG-IV full-wrap bottle with Akulon® Fuel Lock fully meets the requirements of NGV-2 (American CNG vehicle fuel container standard) and ECE-R110 (European Economic Commission's regulations on compressed gas for automotive propulsion systems). The Akulon® Fuel Lock gas cylinders have been mass-produced in Europe last year.

At low temperatures, Akulon® Fuel Lock exhibits a balance between low temperature performance and low permeability. During gas cylinder inflation, the compressed natural gas causes the cylinder temperature to drop sharply (as low as -60 ° C) to cause the liner to shrink, while the internal pressure rises sharply with the injection of compressed gas. The lining will expand again. Akulon® Fuel Lock can withstand high pressure induced stretch at low temperatures and can pass rigorous drop tests. In addition, the barrier effect of Akulon® Fuel Lock on CNG does not deteriorate over time, and its service life will be greatly improved compared to HDPE liners.

From the production process point of view, due to the stable low permeability of Akulon® Fuel Lock and excellent blowability, it is possible to manufacture thin-walled cylinders (with liner thickness as low as 1.5 mm and HDPE liner thickness of 3 mm). This means that the manufactured cylinders use less material, are lighter in weight, have shorter processing cycles, lower processing costs, and have a larger capacity. Moreover, because Akulon® Fuel Lock's high temperature resistance is 50 degrees Celsius higher than HDPE, it can greatly limit the creep at high temperatures, which means that the curing time of the outer composite can be reduced, which further shortens the production cycle. Overall, the Akulon® Fuel Lock lining CNG-IV full-bottle internal volume can be increased by 2% compared to HDPE, the liner can be reduced by 50%, and the cycle time can be reduced by 20%.