Real Time Fuel Tank Health Monitoring for Cryogenic Hydrogen Aviation Fuel

Tech4Imaging (T4I) proposes to develop a real time fuel tank health monitoring system for cryogenic liquid hydrogen (LH2) aviation fuel. This will be accomplished by imaging the fuel distribution in the fuel tank and measuring the total mass of fuel in real time. The measurements will be generated by an Electrical Capacitance Volume Tomography (ECVT) system integrated into a composite vacuum jacketed fuel tank. LH2 fuel tanks pose several challenges to imaging the fuel distribution and measuring the total mass of fuel. While LH2 is extremely cold (20K), highly flammable, prone to boil-off, poses over-pressure hazards, and can easily leak, the primary difficulty when it comes to mass gauging is the highly unpredictable two-phase nature of the fuel in the tank. ECVT is a non-invasive, non-contact measurement modality that relies on low energy electrical signals to interrogate the permittivity of the two-phase mixture in the tank. This project aims at a sensor that can be designed with a tank in various shapes and sizes and will be sold as an integrated unit for installation into an aircraft. The designs can accommodate many fuel systems such as high Lift/Drag wings, Blended Wing Body, conformal tanks, and distributed/embedded propulsion. The primary customers are cryogenic LH2 manufacturers for aviation, particularly those that create non-conductive composite tanks. Adjacent markets include the growing satellite market. The global space-qualified propellant tank market was $1.95B in 2021 with a projected growth to $3.03B in 2030 (straits research).

Hydrogen fueled aircraft is a critical development effort being addressed by extensive funding and work from NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Department of Defense (DOD), and the Department of Energy (DOE). FAA issued Hydrogen-Fueled Aircraft Safety and Certification Roadmap in December 2024. This roadmap identifies several health management concerns that can be addressed by the proposed innovation when applied specifically to NASA applications. NASA needs a LH2 mass gauging instrument to address the need to measure propellant fluid in all missions that rely on LH2 propulsion. NASA has invested money in other technologies like RFMG and MPG but testing result are still inconclusive. This effort will address this technological gap and would provide NASA with a technology that can be standardized once proven successful. Moreover, mass gauging is necessary to satellites and can be used as a gauge to determine when a satellite tank needs to be refueled. Advanced satellites are designed with an aim for refueling to extend the lifetime of a satellite beyond its initial fuel lifetime. The primary customers are cryogenic LH2 manufacturers for aviation, particularly those that create non-conductive composite tanks. Adjacent markets include the growing satellite market. The global space-qualified propellant tank market was $1.95B in 2021 with a projected growth to $3.03B in 2030 (straits research). Also, hydrogen ground transportation can benefit from this development as sloshing in a moving vehicle requires a mass gauging technology that is space invariant. Our technology has this feature and can be easily integrated into virtually any tank shape or size.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.