Kobe LH2 Terminal 2,500 m3 spherical storage tank

A 2,500 m³ spherical liquefied hydrogen storage tank with a capacity of 2,250 m³, installed at Kobe LH2 Terminal (Hy touch Kobe), which Kawasaki describes as the world's first liquefied hydrogen receiving terminal and which it completed on Kobe Airport Island in December 2020. The tank is designed for stable, long-period storage of liquefied hydrogen at -253°C, a state in which hydrogen takes up about one eight-hundredth of its gaseous volume. It uses a double-shell vacuum-insulation structure, with inner and outer shells separated by a vacuum-sealed layer that prevents heat transfer from the outside, and a spherical shape chosen to reduce heat transfer. The design builds on more than 30 years of operation of similar tanks that Kawasaki delivered in the 1980s to the Tanegashima Space Center, and performance tests on the Kobe tank confirmed high thermal insulation capability and functional stability.