About us
Our vision
CST Optimum enables the rapid uptake of green hydrogen in Australia, the USA, and globally, by providing safe, light, cost-effective, pressure vessels.
Using green hydrogen as a fuel reduces carbon emissions from key industries such as transportation, and those that cannot be easily electrified, including steel and cement production and aerospace.
About CST Optimum
CST Optimum is a world-leading supplier of certified composite overwrapped pressure vessels (COPVs) for use in the energy, transport, aerospace and defence sectors.
Our design and manufacturing facilities in Australia and the USA develop a range of COPVs to provide safe, cost-effective storage and transport of green hydrogen and other gases.
Capitalising on our 25 years’ experience in carbon filament winding and COPV design, fabrication and certification, we offer services to manufacture custom COPVs to our customers’ specifications.
Our joint venture
CST Optimum is an international joint venture by two world-class companies: CST Composites (Australia) and Optimum Composite Technologies (USA). This collaboration has capitalised on complementary IP, manufacturing capabilities, distribution networks and customer bases to focus on delivering green hydrogen storage and transportation solutions.
Optimum Composite Technologies was founded in 2012 and comprises filament winding experts with over 25 years of industry experience. Based in Utah USA, their engineers work at the forefront of technology on automotive, aerospace, marine, and infrastructure projects. They provide hydrogen storage cylinders, filament wound composite tubing and testing services.
CST Composites was founded in 1995 and has developed unique filament winding technology in its hi-tech development and manufacturing facilities. Based in Sydney, Australia, it is focused on the design, manufacture and sale of filament wound tubing and carbon fibre sections.
It exports its products to Europe, the US, China and Asia, servicing marine, industrial and hi-tech markets. CST Composites received the Endeavor Awards Australian Global Supply Chain Integrator of the Year award in 2018 and recently won a major grant from the Australian Government’s Manufacturing Modernisation Fund.
Our expertise & experience
The CST Optimum team has overseen the design, development, prototyping, manufacture and certification of multiple new products, including more than 200 types of composite vessels and a wide range of carbon fibre filament wound components.
COPVs Experience
- Design of Types 2, 3, 4 and liner-less COPVs
- Rapid development of Type IV COPV in under 4 months
- Developing COPVs with Service Pressures up to 850 Bar
- Overseen design and manufacturing of 350 Bar cryo-compressed hydrogen COPVs for luxury car manufacturer
- Met leading car manufacturers' requirements for Type 3, 700 bar, 40L and 30L CNG tanks
- Pressure vessel development for space technology company
- Managed design and qualifications of seven different CNG COPV certifications
- Design, fabrication and testing of 8L 3,600 psi Type 3 CNG tank to NGV2-2007 specifications
- Certification and manufacturing of Type 4 COPV virtual pipeline tank (4’ diameter X 25’ long)
- Design of several high-pressure composite tanks for NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
- Design of a liquid nitrogen test system for cryogenic burst testing of composite tanks.
Experience with carbon fibre filament wound components
- Tubes for NASA for the Hubble Space Telescope
- Tubes for SpaceX for their Dragon spacecraft
- Components for the International Space Station
- Wing Spars for AMSL Aero
- Drive shaft development for Rolls Royce
- Carbon fibre masts for Olympic and world-title winning sailors
- Appliance parts for major household brands
Other expertise
- Development of world-leading testing procedures for composite tanks
- Building and automating machines for filament winding
* Green hydrogen is hydrogen produced by electrolysis using renewable energy.
