New hydrogen storage material
23 March 2005 by Hydrogen PowerCars running on hydrogen fuel cells need a way to store the hydrogen in sufficient quantities for an acceptable driving range. This can be difficult to do when weight and size are taken into account. A new development at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory increases the speed that hydrogen is released from the storage medium:
The compound ammonia borane is known to release hydrogen at temperatures below 80 degrees Celsius, but the rate of release is extremely slow, … In the nanophase, the hydrogen comes off very fast – approximately 100 times faster compared to conventional bulk ammonia borane.
The PNNL team used a nanoscale mesoporous silica material as scaffolding for ammonia borane to achieve a high rate of hydrogen release at a lower temperature than is found at the conventional scale. A lower temperature reaction, 80 degrees Celsius (170 degrees Fahrenheit), or below, is important because additional energy is not required to maintain the reaction.
This is good news on the storage front especially when considering the time before large scale availability of hydrogen filling stations is likely to occur.
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