Theme 2: Hydrogen Storage
Effective hydrogen storage technolgies are essential for both stationary and mobile applications. The most technically-challenging barrier for mobile applications is the development of storage facilities to carry hydrogen on-board while still meeting key vehicle performance and cost requirements. Minimising the footprint of stationary hydrogen stores at any scale is also an environmental and economic imperative. For these reasons the Consortium is continuing to emphasise solid state storage during Phase 2, where major developments may have a more technological impact than those in liquid or high-pressure gas storage.
The Consortium's work on hydrogen storage is broadly divided into two groups: Chemical Hydrides, led by Prof Bill David at STFC, and porous solids and nonhydride systems, led by Prof Martin Schröder at Nottingham.
Chemical Hydrides
The main aim of the research is to develop materials containing chemically-bound hydrogen (usually in metallic compounds) that have high storage capacities combined with low hydrogenation temperatures and fast uptake and desorption kinetics. This will enable hydrogen to be used for transportation as well as other static fuel cell applications.
Porous Solids and Non-Hydride Systems
Work in this group has included research on storage in nanoporous metal organic framework (MOF) materials. Nanoprous solids are of particular interest as stores, as hydrogen uptake in them is generally fast and reversible and they have potentially very high capacities. Specific research at Nottingham has been carried out to develop hydrogen storage materials that work at ambient temperatures
Highlights of the Consortium's work includes:
- Studies of storage in novel nanoporous materials and new chemical hydrides;
- Fundamental understanding of, and comparisons between, the storage kinetics and equilibria of these different systems;
- Collaboration between storage groups and socio-economic partners to provide evidence based judgements on the merits of different storage materials; and
- Essential validation of experimental techniques for storage.
A working example of hydrogen storage is the zero-emmissions Ross Barlow hydrogen hybrid canal boat, which was launched by the University of Birmingham on 21 September 2007. This boat is powered by a combination of a metal hydride solid-state hydrogen store, a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell, a lead acid battery stack and a NdFeB permanent magnet electric motor.