Preparing for the Era of Hydrogen Vehicles
Hanwha Solutions has acquired Cimarron, a U.S. startup that possesses the world's best high-pressure tank technology. If hydrogen cars become popular in the future, demand for high-pressure tanks for hydrogen transportation and storage will surge, the company believes.
Hanwha Solutions announced on Dec. 28 that it has signed a contract to acquire 100 percent equity in Cimarron. The two sides have kept the price of the acquisition under wraps.
Cimarron was founded by Tom DeLay in 2008. DeLay worked as a researcher in the field of aviation materials at NASA for 23 years. DeLay is the current CEO of Cimarron. In the early days, the company produced high-pressure tanks for spacecraft. Cimarron high-pressure tanks go into Falcon 9 Rocket of SpaceX, an aerospace company led by Elon Musk.
Cimarron spun off from NASA in 2015 and expanded its business scope to various high-pressure tanks such as tanks for hydrogen tube trailers, tanks for charging stations, and compressed natural gas (CNG) tanks.
Cimarron's 2,000-liter Neptune Tank can withstand pressure up to 517 bars, the highest level among tanks of the same capacity. If a 12-meter hydrogen transport tube trailer is loaded with one unit of Neptune Tank, 1,200 kilograms of hydrogen can be transported at once. Neptune Tank is able to carry about four times more than the most widely used steel tanks in Korea.
Hanwha Solutions plans to wrap up the acquisition process in April 2021 after a review by the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. It plans to invest US$100 million including the acquisition price by 2025. "We will expand our global business by upgrading our tank technology by acquiring Cimarron," said Ryu Doo-hyung, head of the High-Tech Materials Division at Hanwha Solutions. "We will become the world's number one company in the high-pressure tank market by 2030.