Kamden Maas | Steel Wins: Simplifying Hydrogen Storage

Hydrogen storage might not be flashy, but it’s foundational. In this episode of Hydrogen Innovators, we sit down with Kamden Maas, U.S. Sales Manager at Atlanta Cylinders, to unpack how Type I all-steel cylinders are helping projects move from pilot to deployment. Kamden explains why long-lived, stackable, high-pressure steel storage (700 bar U.S.; up to 1000 bar in the EU approvals) can cut costs versus composite alternatives, what third-party certifications (DOT/ASME vs. ISO) really mean for safety, and how storage design choices ripple through refueling, backup power, and site footprint. We also get a candid market tour—Spain/Portugal and Northern Europe’s momentum, steady progress in the U.S. Gulf—and a call for practical collaboration across suppliers, developers, and communities. Kamden closes with advice for early-career professionals on leading with authenticity and pushing the envelope in a constantly evolving industry.

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This article is part of the series: Hydrogen Innovators Podcast

Transcript

[00:00:02.96] KAMDEN MAAS: I see some of my industrial gas customers that have quite literally had our cylinders for a century. It's crazy, but they still work. And once they are retested, they're good to go with all gases. The higher the pressure that you can store it, the smaller space that you need. Even if we're in a dark age right now for hydrogen in the US-- which I'm not fully on board with because I'm still selling stuff, so I don't think it's that dark-- I understand others, and public stuff, it is. But it's not globally. We are selling lots of hydrogen products throughout the world.

[00:00:50.78] KAREN BAERT: Welcome back to the Hydrogen Innovators podcast. As most of you know by now, this is a podcast series produced by The Stanford Hydrogen Initiative where we love spotlighting bold innovators in hydrogen across industry and academia. You can find our podcast series Hydrogen Innovators on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. I'm really excited to be here today with my two wonderful co-hosts and our amazing guest. I'm Karen, entrepreneur and Stanford MBA graduate.

[00:01:20.35] EMMA KERR: I'm Emma Kerr. I'm a current PhD student at Stanford.

[00:01:24.26] MILENIA ROJAS: I'm Milenia Rojas, current chemical engineering PhD student at Stanford. Welcome.

[00:01:30.93] EMMA KERR: On today's episode, we're excited to welcome Kamden Maas as our guest. Kamden, thank you so much for joining us on the Stanford Hydrogen Innovators podcast.

[00:01:40.34] KAMDEN MAAS: Yes, thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to talk to fellow women within the industry.

[00:01:47.52] EMMA KERR: Kamden Maas is the sales manager for the US at Atlanta Cylinders. Kamden has built her career at the intersection of industrial gases and clean energy, with a particular focus on hydrogen. She previously held several roles at BayoTech Hydrogen, where she supported business development and sales in emerging hydrogen markets, including ports and at the Gulf region. Alongside her work in hydrogen, Kamden also serves as a consultant in logistics, giving her a unique insight into the operational challenges of scaling new technologies. She describes herself as impact-driven, committed to leaving the world better than she found it, and always eager to learn-- very much a powerhouse.

[00:02:31.54] Beyond her work, Kamden is a former collegiate athlete, a community leader, and an avid baker and traveler. So, Kamden, we're really looking forward to today's conversation and having you on our podcast.

[00:02:45.27] KAMDEN MAAS: Yes. I don't know if I can follow that introduction, though.

[00:02:48.76] EMMA KERR: Oh, I have no doubts at all. We're very happy to have you. I wanted to start our conversation today with just having you give us a little bit of an introduction of your current role at Atlanta Cylinders, given that you've had a very wide breadth of experience. So we want to see where you're at right now.

[00:03:09.45] KAMDEN MAAS: Yes, I think that's a great transition to start this conversation. So as a sales manager, that title varies largely per company, per industry. And my specific company is a global company. We headquarter over in Europe. However, we like to call it "glopal," which means global and local in one word. So we have local affiliate companies, such as myself, Atlanta Cylinders, throughout the globe. And what I specifically do, strategic planning, selling, obviously, business development, customer relationship, market analysis, coordination of the logistics, customs for ISF. I do have a lot on my plate, but, as you said, I kind of like it that way.

[00:03:56.10] EMMA KERR: That's great to hear. It sounds like we can dive into a lot of different subjects from your background. Perhaps we can talk a little bit about your career journey and how it evolved to get to this point that you're at now.

[00:04:09.22] KAMDEN MAAS: Yes. So I have a little bit different approach than majority of people in the hydrogen or renewable energy space. They typically start in traditional industrial gas and transition. They find their love afterwards into the hydrogen aspect. So I started as my first official job after my MBA program was at a hydrogen company, as you mentioned, BayoTech. And that's where I found my love for hydrogen.

[00:04:39.12] My love for science and making the world a better place definitely started decades before that. Even when I was in elementary school joining programs called Better Education for Women in Science. There's tons of those that you can see in my past. My undergrad was in biotech, and I did work for a biotech company doing coronavirus samples, working in the lab, pharmaceuticals, all of that jazz.

[00:05:06.13] I discovered I like to talk to people. I'm very social, so that wasn't necessarily my avenue. And I did have that love for the climate and the environment more than drugs. So that's where I got into the hydrogen aspect after working for BayoTech, really learning a lot about the industry, hydrogen in general, I switched over to Atlanta Cylinders. And this diversified my skills a lot in the aspect that I deal with every single gas now, ranging from argon, helium, CNG, all the way up to medical oxygen, hydrogen. So that way, I'm able to have a touch in a lot of different industries, because at this point, I sell the storage for all of those. I don't make it any longer.

[00:05:51.50] KAREN BAERT: Amazing. Well, let's dive straight into that. We would love to learn more about Atlanta Cylinder's portfolio in the cylinder industry, thinking about product development and market positioning, but also specifically in hydrogen. Of course, hydrogen is not an easy molecule to store. Some people refer to it as the escape artist.

[00:06:10.51] KAMDEN MAAS: [LAUGHS]

[00:06:11.69] KAREN BAERT: Tell us more about your product offering and then with a specific focus on hydrogen.

[00:06:17.46] KAMDEN MAAS: Perfect. Yes, my company only makes steel cylinders. So these cylinders are type 1. There are four different types of cylinders, and they are strictly steel. There's no lining. There's no carbon fiber, nothing like that, which is typically what you see for hydrogen storage and transportation. We primarily focus right now for the United States on ground storage. So it's completely steel, making it very safe. The life cycle is significantly longer than type 3 or type 4 because you don't have to do every five years retesting. They're not done after 15 years. They have a very long life cycle. I see some of my industrial gas customers that have quite literally had our cylinders for a century. It's crazy, but they still work, and once they are retested, they're good to go with all gases.

[00:07:09.13] So there's that aspect. We're storage only steel. There's not very many companies that do make billet steel cylinders for hydrogen at such a high pressure. In Europe, we range anywhere from 100 bar to 1,000 bar, which I know no other company in the world does that, which is very enticing. We are working on higher approval bar ratings for the United States. Right now, we're about 700 bar. ASME and DOT do require different calculations for wall thickness than the rest of the world does for [? UNO ?] ISO. So that's quite interesting.

[00:07:49.62] So we talked about the pressure that we offer for hydrogen, what it's actually made of, and then I'm going to dive a little bit further. So we also do steel reinforcement around the cylinders. So we can stack a lot of our storage units on top of each other. So if you're worried about land space, which, obviously, in California, is a huge topic, land is very expensive. We can stack our storage on top of each other, either manifolding them all together on one pipe or having different outlets for each one, depending on what exactly the application is.

[00:08:24.08] I would say that's a pretty high level explanation of what our products are, specifically with hydrogen.

[00:08:30.81] KAREN BAERT: Super interesting. I have a quick follow up question because that's fascinating. So do we understand correctly that one of the things that is really unique at Atlanta Cylinders is that you can pressurize to very high pressures?

[00:08:43.11] KAMDEN MAAS: Yes.

[00:08:43.84] KAREN BAERT: We think that the benefit there is, of course, higher pressure means you need less space. So it's very efficient in that way. But the downside, of course, is that pressurizing hydrogen can be expensive. Talk us through what are the advantages of very high pressure storage.

[00:08:59.18] KAMDEN MAAS: Yes, exactly what you were just saying. So the higher the pressure that you can store it, the smaller space that you need. Also, when you're defilling the storage and filling into your application, you don't necessarily need a booster. If you filled it before and are storing it at a certain pressure, then you can just plug and chug into your actual application without needing another step of boosting up.

[00:09:26.52] Some of the issues, which I'm assuming you are all aware of, but let's just talk to our audience about, is the pressure for the hydrogen. So whether you liquefy it, whether if you keep it in the gaseous state, once you get it to your application, most of the time, it has to be reboosted up to be put into the Hyundai trucks, or the Toyota trucks, or whatever it may be, because they are at 700 bar. So again, it really just matters what the application is, depending on what product we would recommend.

[00:10:01.47] I wouldn't say this is necessarily a sales pitch for all of your listeners, but just more of, here's what's out here if you're interested. There's more options than what are really pushed in the media. Does that answer your question?

[00:10:16.32] KAREN BAERT: Absolutely. Thank you.

[00:10:18.52] MILENIA ROJAS: And as you're storing and transporting a lot of these different molecules for different services, what would you say are the most technical and logistical challenges? Would it be, how do you safely store these at such a high pressure, but also at such a compact space?

[00:10:36.80] KAMDEN MAAS: Yes. Safety, obviously, with hydrogen is such a high priority because it can escape. It is extremely flammable, as we all know. So the requirement for certification is a very intensive process. We have people full time who live at all of our facilities for different third party approval companies who can either, depending on the approval body, if it's DOT, ASME, or over in Europe, will check every single cylinder or will periodically just pull out random cylinders and do a full test to make sure that it meets the exact process.

[00:11:12.52] Thankfully, for America, it does take more time and is more costly, but it's much more safe because they have to check every single cylinder-- and not just at the end. Also, throughout the process, if the inspector wants to go in the middle of the semi product and check it out, they're welcome to and they're supported to do that to make sure that even throughout the whole process, there's not anything funky going on to make sure that the safety of the environment and the people is really a high standard.

[00:11:40.80] MILENIA ROJAS: And do you have to change your safety regulations for each country that you provide, since it's a global country?

[00:11:47.98] KAMDEN MAAS: I think that's a really cool perspective, being part of this global company that we serve so many different markets, quite literally every continent, that I am learning, and I'm constantly hearing about new approvals or new adjustments that different countries are making for hydrogen or any other gas, CNG, that is necessary. I think you also are able to see the market development. And even if we're in a dark age right now for hydrogen in the US-- which I'm not fully on board with because I'm still selling stuff, so I don't think it's that dark-- I understand others and public stuff, it is. But it's not globally.

[00:12:30.01] We are selling lots of hydrogen products throughout the world. Maybe it's not as many as we'd like in the US, but it's still progressing. The technologies are still progressing, the storage is, the people is, the applications. So I think that is a positive to see from the point of view of a larger company in the storage industry.

[00:12:51.79] EMMA KERR: That's great to hear. Now, we as individuals who are focused on hydrogen, sometimes, as the cycle moves around, it's wonderful to hear the different perspectives of where momentum is still building. I just want to touch a little bit more about as you are coming from a larger company, how does Atlanta Cylinders look at innovations and materials and manufacturing and inspections even? What are you doing in order to improve your performance and your cost effectiveness of your products?

[00:13:23.69] KAMDEN MAAS: That is a great question. I will highlight, right off the bat, our product, compared to other storage that's currently used in the US, is significantly cheaper. Because it is type 1 cylinders, not type 3 cylinders. So there's no carbon fiber. There's none of that. There's no retesting. So that's a great start. We're already so much cheaper. And that's why my customer was like, wow, I didn't know this existed. It's cheaper, and it lasts longer. What else can I want? It does way more, but to each their own.

[00:13:54.03] So to improve our productivity and efficiency, we have so many robots at our facilities. It's a very heavy machinery process because we take hunks of solid steel, all from the EU, heat them up extremely hot-- Kelvin temperatures, I don't even know-- and then we take a machine that punches through them, like literally just punches a bunch of steel through. And with this, we're cooling it down, reforming it. So that's how the cylinder is made.

[00:14:28.99] So the efficiency comes from using the robots, making sure the energy is at least as carbon-friendly as we can hope for. That's energy efficiency and inspection efficiency. I think you can only improve on it by making more. If you have more products, then your people are going to get better and better at doing their job if it's consistent. We don't supply that much to the US, so if I continue selling, or other people are interested in our product, then we'll become more efficient just from practice, I would say.

[00:15:02.65] KAREN BAERT: And, Kam, you touched upon market trends previously. We'd love to go a little deeper there. I think we agree with you that often, because there was some kind of hydrogen hype in 2020, there were all these projects announced, and everyone thought hydrogen would solve all the problems that we have. And now, a few years later, we're realizing-- we're trying to be more realistic. We're getting our first projects into the ground. See that some of them, if not most of them, take a little longer and are a bit more expensive than expected. And as a result of that, some of the more unrealistic projects are getting canceled. But also, we're really starting to learn from real projects and what works and what doesn't. And a lot of projects keep moving.

[00:15:43.81] KAMDEN MAAS: Exactly.

[00:15:44.19] KAREN BAERT: From that perspective, we'd love to, since you're in the field, you're the one actually selling a lot of these solutions, where do you see the market taking off? Give us some concrete examples on types of projects, types of use cases, and geographies where you see a lot of sales right now for your hydrogen solution.

[00:16:05.40] KAMDEN MAAS: So globally, hydrogen-- we sell a lot to Spain, Portugal, Northern Europe. We sell a lot of bundles ranging in size that are 16 50 liters, which is gibberish probably to you and most of the audience, which is a smaller option for us. But it is a good solid stationary backup supply for energy or for fueling that doesn't occur all the time.

[00:16:35.18] So again, like you mentioned, some of these projects are in the baby steps. So having that first storage option that supplies enough hydrogen for your customer to run all of their tests until they have proven the technology is a great first step. And the great part-- another positive thing about our cylinders, because they are steel, most of the time they can be cleaned and used for different gas. So if this project does decide to take a turn and go somewhere else, but it's with a larger company, or a startup that has a different idea, you can use our storage for other gases afterwards, whether you upgraded and got a larger one because your program was amazing, or if you just decided to take a U-turn and do something else, you can use it for a different application.

[00:17:22.52] So I would say those are globally a lot of places in Europe that we're selling quite a few bundles, ranging from small, to huge bundles. A lot of them for the application aspect are backup storage, like I slightly mentioned, refueling stations. And then we have some baby startup applications.

[00:17:43.59] For the US, I haven't done a ton of selling for hydrogen yet just because it's still developing for our technical aspect. I haven't reached the 1,000 bar, which I'd like to reach from the approval bodies quite yet. I have been selling in the Gulf a lot. So Texas, a lot of those projects, because they are privately funded, are continuing to move forward.

[00:18:13.67] I do love that the hype of a few years ago told the entire nation. So it's not just us nerds who are in science that know about hydrogen. It was on the news. It was in [? acts, ?] like it was part of the law, at some point, for hydrogen. So the people know what it is. I think the education piece is so important because hydrogen had been around. BMW had made a fuel cell and had a huge driving race essentially about 50 years ago, and nothing happened after they did it because the people were scared. They didn't know.

[00:18:48.28] So regardless of all those public, huge projects not occurring, I still think it was a positive because now the regular citizens of the United States know what hydrogen is, so they won't be as scared once it does continue to grow with the private funding. I don't want to name drop, but I'll just say the larger companies that are already in oil and gas, their projects are still moving forward because they have the money. They do see the future. They see Europe is still developing. And China is making so much hydrogen. It's definitely black, but they're developing it. So other countries are moving forward with it. So I do think we will continue to move forward with the production and application within the United States.

[00:19:35.18] MILENIA ROJAS: And talking about such a fast moving space, how are you guys keeping up with the innovation? What are your current focus areas? How do you track all the trends, especially with such a wide range of products and services that you guys offer?

[00:19:53.14] KAMDEN MAAS: Yes, I love that question. I also hate that question. Just because there is so much going on. You learn from your customers just as much as they learn from you. You're learning every single day, I feel like, on LinkedIn or even Google. I'm getting updates of different projects and different technical aspects or education, like the fields that you guys are in that are constantly developing. That's part of the reason why I'm in this industry because it's so addicting. I'm never going to be an expert because there are no experts. I mean, there are, don't get me wrong. But there is no end to learning in this.

[00:20:30.30] And so to more focus in on your actual question, how do we track it? You just have to have your open eyes and open ears, right? Of course, we have internal and automated products that go through and find certain applications that would be good, or companies that we should contact based upon their press releases or what someone else said. But industrial collaboration is huge. Listening to your customers, listening to your competitors, or just adjacent companies who I could be supplying to-- that really helps. And not only communicating with them to see what's going on in the market and the news, like you're mentioning, but also, we have to help each other.

[00:21:14.18] This is a huge, huge-- or I should say, a prominent theme throughout the nation and globally that if we want this to move forward, the small guys have to help the big guys, and vice versa. Everyone has a little specialty or a niche on which valves are better, or how to use them, or whatever it may be. And we just have to help each other. No one's filling. Or if no one's going to fill, and it's going to be a seamless process. There's always something changing with hydrogen. And I think the responsibility and ability to adapt is something huge within the renewable energy space.

[00:21:56.19] EMMA KERR: Thank you for that perspective. I really liked your comment of how this open communication across different players is going to be vital in order to make a lot of these technologies realized and make this market something, especially for the US, that is realized. So I just want to maybe ask a little bit further of how do you see a way for this communication to be opened. What do you think needs to be done across small and large players, but also, as you mentioned earlier, communities and the social license to operate safely within communities so that people are excited about hydrogen?

[00:22:36.33] KAMDEN MAAS: Wow. That is a loaded question. If I had a utopia, I wish we could all sit down on a podcast and talk about all our issues and our winning strategies. That would be amazing in order to help the industry seriously grow at an exponential rate. Obviously, that's not going to happen because we still all want our own business. You're still in business to make money.

[00:23:00.14] So I think communication is great. Obviously, intelligence and information is so powerful in this industry. Sharing it is going to be helpful. I also think helping each other in the aspect of not getting frustrated when something doesn't go exactly to plan, or not charging $1 million for storage. I'm saying $1 million, but literally, it could be $1 million for you to hold a trailer somewhere.

[00:23:32.36] We're all in this together, whether we like it or not. In order for it to grow, we have to help each other with, yes, the communication part, but then also the policy aspect of making sure that we're not biting each other's hand in order to get the upper hand for the extra few dollars now, when in the long run-- and you see the big picture-- it's going to help out if we just are kind to each other while we're going through this adversity, like going up and down the little roller coaster.

[00:24:03.54] EMMA KERR: Thank you. Yeah. I agree that it's a challenge. It's a double-edged sword that needs to be done. But obviously, business needs to continue as usual. I'd like to move a little bit from your current role and your perspective in hydrogen also to your perspective as a young professional in a market, in an industry that might not be dominated by others who are like yourself. And we're very lucky to have a group here that are powerhouse women in hydrogen, and in science, and technology. So we're curious in what first inspired you to pursue a career in this space, and what were your driving factors and your motivation to stay in it.

[00:24:47.86] KAMDEN MAAS: Yes, I love this question, and I am a huge advocate for women in emerging energy, women in anything. It doesn't just have to be science. I will support women to women for any problem or adversity that they're facing.

[00:25:05.71] I will say that my curiosity to go into science and help the world be a better place was very natural. It was something that-- I don't want to say I was born with, but I think I was born with it. And the fact that, even in middle school, I was, of course, always taking all those advanced classes and at science and math, et cetera, but then also involved in women in engineering applications and clubs, stuff like that. That helped me with confidence that I am like these other women who are older at that time when I'm 13 years old. They have a career in science, and they love it. They're making a difference in the world for the next generation. Seeing that obviously helped me and framed my mindset as a young girl into knowing I can conquer this and make the difference that I really want to.

[00:26:00.64] EMMA KERR: Yeah, I feel like seeing those professional women as role models is really what is striving the little girls to see more like, oh, scientists that look like themselves. I love that. And so thinking about some listeners that are also young professionals, what advice would you give them breaking into this type of job sector like hydrogen, clean energy, industrial gases. What would you wish you would have known?

[00:26:31.96] KAMDEN MAAS: The one thing I would definitely wish I would have recognized a little bit earlier-- I know I'm still pretty early in my career. I'm definitely not at my pinnacle yet-- to be more of my authentic self. I was truly trying to fit in to the corporate box that a lot of these companies want you to be. Perfect, follow the rules, do this, do this. I wish I would have given more of my personality to start with. When you are more authentically yourself, when you're dealing with your customers or friends that you make inside the industry, they trust you more when something changes. Because they know who you are. If you are pretending to have a double life and be this quiet person that fits into the perfect corporate box that isn't very creative and follows all the rules, then they're less likely to trust you when you do show your personality a little bit or something changes because that's not authentically who you have been.

[00:27:34.52] So I would definitely highlight that for any new people coming into any industry, renewable also, because everything does change so constantly. And I did mention that several times already in this podcast. I would recommend, or just wish I would have been way more authentic from the beginning.

[00:27:53.62] I would also-- not something I would change, but I would recommend for newbies-- is to push the envelope. Regardless of your company size, small, big, whatever the technology is, to ask questions and to push. If you have an opinion that differs than everyone else, it might be the solution. And it could be down the line or it could be short term. It really just depends. But pushing the envelope, being creative, and saying what you think really does make a difference, regardless of how small it is.

[00:28:29.01] KAREN BAERT: I love that so much. And, Kamden, I feel like the combination of your technical expertise, your authenticity to your point now, and your unwavering passion and energy makes you an incredible force of nature in this industry. It's like 8:00 AM here in San Francisco, and I'm fired up to go crush my day. [LAUGHS]

[00:28:50.25] So with that, we are getting to the last question of our episode today, a question that we hold close to our heart. We like to ask every guest on our podcast something related to Isaac Newton's words that we all "stand on the shoulders of giants who came before us," and it's standing on those shoulders what makes us see further. So in that context, who inspires you, who inspires you most, and why?

[00:29:16.63] KAMDEN MAAS: So this answer hasn't really changed. Well, first off, thank you for those kind words. I am a very, very passionate and energetic person. Some people love it, some people hate it, but it is what it is.

[00:29:29.80] Who has inspired me? My inspiration has come from my grandma. She was born in the early '30s, so she is currently still alive. She is 95 years old. And she went to college when a lot of women weren't during that time. She grew up in the North, and she went to college down in the South, got her degree, and then out of college, she didn't just get married, she got a job. She defined a lot of things and really was part of the generation that paved the way for us to have jobs in science, or even have jobs consistently. So she is a huge inspiration to me. She has a spunky energy as well. It's generational. I wish I could claim it all to myself. But I would say, she's definitely my largest inspiration.

[00:30:14.99] EMMA KERR: That's wonderful to hear. I also hold a special relationship with my grandma, so I think that's really amazing to see that spunkiness does get passed down. Well, Kamden, thank you so much for this amazing conversation. We really dove into a lot of different subjects and were guided by truly, your energeticness, which I agree with Karen. This is exciting for us to hear this, and we're really happy to share this with our listeners.

[00:30:45.11] KAMDEN MAAS: Amazing. Thank you so much for having me. It's an honor. Seriously.

[00:30:48.25]