CNG cylinder
manufacturers test
basalt fibre
Basalt fibre offers an alternative to carbon and glass in the
filament winding of compressed natural gas cylinders. Dmitri
Pavlovski, Boris Mislavsky and Andrey Antonov of Russian
company Kamenny Vek report on some promising studies.
he manufacture of compressed
T natural gas (CNG) cylinders is
growing rapidly worldwide. This is
in line with growing demand from
the automotive industry for cheaper and
ecologically cleaner fuel, and in particular
compressed natural gas.
However, the use of CNG creates the
problem of gas storage and safe transport-
ation. Vessels for CNG storage (CNG cylin-
ders) must be strong, lightweight, and resist-
ant to impact and temperature. At present,
cylinders can be divided into the following
three groups, depending on the materials
used in their manufacture:
metallic;
metal-composite (metal liner strengthened
by polymer composite material); and
composite (polymer liner strengthened by
polymer composite material).
Today, all three groups are widely available on
the market and each has its own advantages
and disadvantages. For example, the weight
of metal cylinders is a serious disadvantage.
The weight of a cylinder can be reduced by
partially replacing the metal with a lower
weight polymer composite material as well as
replacing the metal liner with a polymer liner.
In this case the cylinder maintains its durabil-
ity because of the high strength, lightweight
36 REINFORCEDplastics April 2007
research in several countries advanced the
science and technology of basalt fibre manu-
produced. In the past 30-40 years most of the
A number of companies are trialling the use of basalt
fibres in the filament winding of CNG storage vessels.
epoxy impregnated carbon fibres used. But
the extremely high price and current shortage
of supply of carbon fibre may force manufac-
turers of CNG cylinders to look for an alter-
native material. Basalt fibre, which has better
mechanical properties than E-glass fibre and
is more widely available and cheaper than
carbon fibre, could be a good alternative in
this application.
Basalt fibre
Russian company Kamenny Vek produces
continuous basalt fibres. These are being
used in a variety of applications, including
the manufacture of metal-composite and
composite CNG storage cylinders.
Basalt is an inert, naturally occurring, vol-
canic rock that is found worldwide. The first
attempts to produce basalt filaments from the
melt were made in the USA in 1923. During
World War II, and continuing into the 1950s,
facture, but no commercial products were
research and the commercialisation of basalt
fibre products has occurred in Russia and in
the former republics of the Soviet Union.
Basalt-based materials are environmen-
tally friendly and are non-hazardous. The
current technology for producing continu-
ous basalt fibres is very similar to that used
for E-glass manufacturing. The main differ-
ence is that E-glass is made from a complex
batch of materials whereas basalt filament is
made from melting basalt rock with no other
additives. Basalt fibre reinforcement is sized
0034-3617/07 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
 Feature

during manufacture (in exactly the same way

Table 1: Kamenny Vek basalt roving properties (impregnated strand, 13 micron
as E-glass) to protect the fibre and to impart filament diameter, 1200 tex).
the resin compatibility needed for optimum
Characteristic (in epoxy resin) ASTM Values
performance.
Once the continuous basalt fibres have Tensile strength D2343 2900-3200 MPa
been produced, they are converted into a Tensile modulus D2343 85-95 GPa
suitable form for each particular applica- Elongation D2343 3.2%
tion. For these CNG evaluations the continu-
Dry fibre tensile strength D3822 700-750 mN/tex
ous strands were assembled into rovings for
filament winding. Some typical basalt roving Basalt fibre specific gravity 2.66 g/cm3
properties are shown in Table 1.
Table 2: Fibre property comparison.
Filament winding Material Failure stress, Modulus, Cost,
MPa (ksi) MPa (msi) US$/kg (lb)
To investigate the filament winding of a
CNG cylinder using basalt fibre, to evaluate BCF 13.2400.KV12 2937 (426) 109 (15.8) 3.2 (1.45)
the advantages of basalt fibre and determine Grafil34-700 12K* 4881 (708) 231 (33.5) 28 (12.7)
potential problems, Kamenny Vek and US OCF 450 Yield Type 2586 (375) 74.4 (10.8) 2 (0.91)
company Spencer Composites Corp (SCC) 30 E-Glass**
performed some tests. These included the * www.mrc.co.jp
optimisation of the basalt/epoxy filament ** www.owenscorning.com
winding process, manufacture of material
with specified properties, and production of a
high pressure cylinder with optimal physical
and mechanical properties.
Basalt roving BCF 13.2400.KV12 with
13 micron monofilament diameter and
2400 tex linear density manufactured by
Kamenny Vek for use with epoxy resin, was
used for testing. The epoxy resin system
used in the test was Epon 862 with an
amine curing agent. In the first stage of the
work, unidirectional cylindrical samples of
basalt/epoxy composite were produced. The
basalt fibre content in all samples was 65% by
volume. The winding process was conducted
on SCCs proprietary test equipment with
the following optimal parameters: winding
speed 30 m/min; fibre tension 3-5 lbs; resin
temperature ambient 25C; resin curing
conditions 315F (157C) for 4 hours. Ring specimens of basalt/epoxy composite.
The cylinders were then cut to produce
ring test specimens and tested for tensile parameters. All the specimens were tested At the same time, the price of basalt is defi-
properties using SCCs proprietary ring burst using SCCs proprietary test method (test nitely comparable to E-glass and nine times
test method. report for SAMPE conference, May 2006). lower than carbon. This gives filament wind-
The basalt fibre was found to process just Table 2 compares the results obtained from ers the opportunity to reduce their expenses
like glass fibre and no fabrication problems the basalt rings with those from the carbon and get quality products at effective cost.
were encountered in the winding of the rings. fibre and E-glass fibre specimens. The table All of the data can be confirmed by cal-
The basalt fibre also exhibited excellent wet- also lists the current price for each. It can culations made using the composite-oracle
out during fabrication. be seen from these results that basalt fibre is engineering tools (www.composite-oracle.
Ring specimens made with carbon and at least 15% higher in tensile strength, and com). According to these calculations, the
glass fibre were wound using similar process around 35% higher in modulus, than E-glass. weight of a basalt high pressure vessel is 15%

April 2007 REINFORCEDplastics 37


Kamenny Vek offers a wide range of basalt rovings with different linear densities and various sizings for
filament winding CNG cylinders.
lower than similar E-glass vessels of the same
strength. Since the amount of resin and fibre
used to manufacture one cylinder is around
15% less, and manufacturing time and labour
costs are also reduced, the cost of the basalt/
epoxy cylinder is approximately 5% less than
that of a cylinder made using glass.
Feature
and were certificated according to Russian
norms.
Some European companies have also
produced composite cylinders with basalt and
tested them. After cyclic testing, such vessels,
which are designed for 200 bars of working
pressure, exhibited high fatigue stress (17 000
cycles of loading and unloading at 260 bar
pressure) with the burst pressure of 625 bar
after that.
These theoretical and practical results
allow us to say that basalt is a promising
material for this application. All the advan-
tages of basalt fibres higher tensile strength,
modulus, high chemical resistance, the pos-
sibility of recycling, and an extended range
of working temperatures can be realised in
filament wound components.
Several Russian and international
companies are interested in introducing basalt
fibres into CNG cylinder manufacturing.
Dmitri Pavlovski, Kamenny Vek; e-mail:
One Russian company has manufactured pavdim@basfiber.com; www.basfiber.com
metal-composite cylinders of different
Spencer Composites Corp;
volumes using basalt/epoxy composite. www.spencercomposites.com
These cylinders successfully passed all testing
April 2007 REINFORCEDplastics 39