Dr. Nicholas P. Stadie, EMPA – Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology and Caltech presents:
A reversible technology for compact, lightweight hydrogen storage at room temperature has been the target of intense investigation for at least 3 decades, a serious obstacle to the realization of a hydrogen-based sustainable energy economy. Physical adsorption of hydrogen, or perhaps carbon-neutral chemical fuels, on the surface of porous materials offers a promising avenue for mobile energy storage applications. The addition of a well-chosen sorbent material to a compressed gas tank can be demonstrated to increase the volumetric and gravimetric energy density of the system while still permitting fast refueling, simplicity of design, complete reversibility, near-infinite cyclability, and low overall cost of materials. While physical adsorption of hydrogen is most effective at temperatures well below ambient, effective storage of other gases such as methane is possible at room temperature and modest pressures. Recent developments in hydrogen storage methods at ambient temperatures have also been made by extending the concept of porosity to benefit non-traditional storage materials such as complex hydrides to improve kinetics and thermodynamics in advanced systems.