Conflux Technology and Dallara co-develop liquid hydrogen heat exchanger for endurance racing

Conflux Technology has partnered with motorsport manufacturer Dallara to co-develop an additively manufactured liquid hydrogen-to-coolant heat exchanger for a next-generation hydrogen internal combustion engine (ICE) endurance race car. The pre-study program, announced July 2, 2026, targets thermal management challenges at cryogenic temperatures, using additive manufacturing to realize complex internal geometries, minimize hydrogen embrittlement risks, and fit the component into extremely tight packaging volumes while controlling weight, thermal performance, and pressure drop. The work aligns with the Le Mans 24-hour race governing body’s hydrogen roadmap toward 2030, with Dallara building a digital twin of the overall liquid hydrogen storage and delivery system to validate a technical platform for future manufacturer and team customers.

This partnership illustrates a recurring pattern in AM adoption: the technology enters high-performance motorsport not as a headline material-saving story but as an enabler of thermal and fluidic geometries that cannot be produced by conventional machining or casting. For Conflux, a specialist in additively manufactured heat exchangers, the deal extends its reference base from aerospace and industrial cooling into the transport-energy transition segment, where liquid hydrogen propulsion demands extreme thermal management. The hydrogen evaporator-converting cryogenic liquid hydrogen to gas for injectors-is a critical subsystem whose sizing and layout influence pump selection, system packaging, total mass, and integration with existing cooling loops. By solving this integration challenge upfront, Dallara aims to lower the barrier for teams adopting liquid hydrogen ICE concepts without building every subsystem from scratch, a move that could accelerate adoption timelines in motorsport’s sustainability push.

For Conflux, the practical next step is moving from simulation and pre-study to hardware testing and qualification, proving that its AM heat exchanger can survive the thermal cycling, vibration, and pressure extremes of endurance racing without failure. Dallara, meanwhile, must demonstrate that the validated platform can be adopted by multiple manufacturers without requiring bespoke redesigns for each team. The partnership is a measured, engineering-first approach to a technically demanding application-neither company is promising a race-ready prototype tomorrow, but both are building the subsystem-level evidence that will determine whether liquid hydrogen ICE can compete at Le Mans by 2030.