E-Mobility Engineering 017 l ECE Doosan electric excavators dossier l In Conversation: Matt Faulks l Battery testing focus l Battery Show North America 2022 report l Ariel Hipercar digest l Cathode materials insight l Thermal management focus

hydrogen requires a 100 kg tank, which also needs either heavy attachments for cars or external frames for trucks. In Viritech’s FCEV chassis, therefore, the hydrogen tanks double as structural, load-bearing members. That does not mean the tanks are subjected to huge torsional loads; however, extensive FEA and testing is performed to ensure the safety of the tanks and their contents under all load cases. “While there’s lots of talk about lightweight vessels, in reality there’s a certain pressure delta you have to work to, with a minimum requirement of carbon and resin no matter what,” Faulks says. “We’re researching Type 5 [linerless] tanks, but to reduce that minimum material requirement without adding insane costs requires breaking the laws of physics. “As standard, the tanks are actually engineered to three times their failure rate, and hence could hold 2100 bar of pressure, so using that strength to support the chassis allows us to take weight out elsewhere. As I’m talking to you I’m sat just 75 m from one of our test mules that has a structural pressure vessel in it, currently pressurised to 700 bar; we’re continuously studying how best to apply that tank’s strength in different monocoques, and nothing beats real- world data for research quality.” Electric energy economies Viritech also sees the green grid of future sustainable economies as being well-placed for producing and storing hydrogen gas, which Faulks notes would address the supply issues that some tout as a reason not to use as part of efforts at decarbonisation. “The argument stands that BEVs and FCEVs aren’t emissions-free because the grid isn’t emissions-free, which isn’t untrue,” he says. “But say it’s 30 years in the future, and 100% of Britain’s energy is supplied by wind, tidal and solar energy, and instead of petrol and diesel we have plug-in and hydrogen stations. “If we’re to take all our energy from wind, waves and sunlight, we’re not going to have a consistent supply from the grid. There will be periods of excess production, so we might as well make hydrogen from it for cleaner, denser energy storage and transportability. Then we can expend that hydrogen in fuel cell generators, rather than overload the grid or cover areas of the country in massive and not particularly green battery stations.” Viritech is now exploring the potential for such grid usage through a hydrogen energy station proof-of-concept design, which it is developing with two commercial partners also interested in how an optimally efficient nationwide refuelling and recharging infrastructure might be developed. Future green tech Although Viritech plans only limited production of the Apricale, bulk production of its energy management systems in- house and of its hydrogen storage and battery systems by suppliers are expected to follow, to enable production of the Jovian and other commercial fleet FCEVs. “Toyota and Intelligent Energy have shown us that PEMFCs can be mass- produced, and Bosch are scaling up production as we speak. And the necessary mineral and rare earth supply chains to do that are essentially no different to what we use for making catalytic converters,” he says. “In contrast to batteries, those are the one bit of production IC-engined cars that we’re actually very good at recycling, because they’re worth it on a per-gram basis.” Viritech is also working with a large, undisclosed OEM on how best to recover and reuse the carbon from its structural tanks. That will most likely find a second life as chopped fibres in monocoques, and then a third life as further-chopped fibres in dashboards and interior trim panels, eventually serving in seat fillers or similar applications. Faulks meanwhile plans to steer his company’s research into cost-optimising its battery technologies for truck manufacturing, and closely watches companies such as Superdielectrics for their promised developments of supercapacitors with higher energy densities than lithium-ion batteries. He and his colleagues also track developments in LFP cells, which use similar materials and hence supply chains as fuel cells, and stand to reduce the EV world’s dependence on nickel, manganese and cobalt. He also keeps a close eye on HT-PEMFCs (‘HT’ meaning high temperature), anticipating much of the heavy-duty e-mobility industry investing in this technology and its scalability in the future. “Although we’re on track to manufacture our hypercar and start prototyping the FCEV truck later this year, with aircraft and marine testing mules to follow in the years ahead, for us it isn’t principally about building EVs. Spreading our enabling technology for high-efficiency powertrains is everything to us,” he says. “If a world without carbon emissions is going to happen, we need the best combinations of technologies for every application, starting with the best of batteries and fuel cells.” Matt Faulks Faulks began his motorsport apprenticeship at 16 while at college, electing at 18 to continue down the apprenticeship route with Formula Ford. He went on to work across teams in the British Touring Car Championship and Formula One, as well as some high-performance roadcars including the 580 kg, 305 bhp BAC Mono, before co-founding Viritech with CEO Timothy Lyons in 2020. Before that he also founded and managed TDF for nine years, which contributed to Formula One Management’s Global Partner programme during the late 2010s. Faulks now works from Viritech’s facilities in the MIRA Technology Park, in Leicestershire, England. January/February 2023 | E-Mobility Engineering 19 InConversation | Matt Faulks