Hydrogen Storage in Metal Hydrides

Solid-State Hydrogen Storage based on reversible metal hydrides offers several benefits over other means of storing hydrogen. Reversible metal hydrides operate at low pressure, especially when compared to compressed hydrogen, and do not need to be kept at the cryogenic temperatures required for liquid hydrogen storage. Reversible hydride storage typically requires less energy on a system basis, is compact, and can be conformable to fit space available on the application.

Hydrogen storage systems range in size from small to large. Ergenics has made small storage units that provide fuel for hydrogen fuel cell-powered cell phones and pure hydrogen for the Cassini spacecraft's exploration of Saturn's moon, Titan. Medium sized units, like the ST1-AL , are used for portable fuel cells and fuel cell powered video cameras.

An Ergenics' hydride storage vessel supplies hydrogen to a Jadoo Power Systems' fuel cell which powers this video camera demonstrated by President Bush.

One of the key challenges of the Hydrogen Economy is that of hydrogen storage. Without a cost-effective, compact and practical solution to the storage of hydrogen onboard vehicles, the promise of a clean and reliable energy supply will not significantly materialize in the transportation sector and in other applications of the new Hydrogen Economy.

Worldwide research is underway to solve the storage challenge onboard vehicles with solid-state hydrogen storage based on solid adsorbents, advanced hydrides and combinations thereof. The challenges include reducing weight, lowering cost and reducing refill time at the service station. Additionally, there are opportunities for hydride-based hydrogen storage in hydrogen delivery, refueling stations, and portable power.

Ergenics has developed a hydrogen storage system that begins to address the engineering challenges of vehicle storage. Click here for more information about this project.