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Hydrogen Storage

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When I was an undergrad in the late '80s in Materials Science, there was a professor who had developed a yttrium based alloy he called a "hydrogen sponge" -- it would soak up hydrogen and leave it inert in this alloy until a small electric current passed through it. This would release the hydrogen, which he was hoping would go into a small ceramic-block combustion engine - since hydrogen combustion is around 95% efficient. As a bonus, the process of releasing hydrogen was endothermic, so the hydrogen sponge was also the air conditioner.

I wonder whatever happened to that technology? It had drawbacks in the alloy was heavy -- and the some of the same hydrogen generation issues that the current fuel cell cars have. But storage and transport worked better than what we have today, and hydrogen ICE should be less costly and more efficient than a fuel cell.
 
When I was an undergrad in the late '80s in Materials Science, there was a professor who had developed a yttrium based alloy he called a "hydrogen sponge" -- it would soak up hydrogen and leave it inert in this alloy until a small electric current passed through it. This would release the hydrogen, which he was hoping would go into a small ceramic-block combustion engine - since hydrogen combustion is around 95% efficient. As a bonus, the process of releasing hydrogen was endothermic, so the hydrogen sponge was also the air conditioner.

I wonder whatever happened to that technology? It had drawbacks in the alloy was heavy -- and the some of the same hydrogen generation issues that the current fuel cell cars have. But storage and transport worked better than what we have today, and hydrogen ICE should be less costly and more efficient than a fuel cell.

As my thesis work was done in Materials Science in the early '00 I do know a little bit about this. My professor was doing a presentation at my school about current projects earlier this month, and he talked about this. They do have even better materials now for storing hydrogen, mostly as hydrides. The problem is they all require rare-earth metals like Yttrium. They are working on a material using Nickel currently but it isn't as good as the rare-earth materials.

The reason you don't want to use rare-earth materials is that rare-earths are heavy (minor problem), rare (name sort of gives it away ) so world supply is low, and hence it's expensive to get. So heavy, low world supply, and expensive. For something you need in "every" car that solution is not useful.

Cobos
 
The reason you don't want to use rare-earth materials is that rare-earths are heavy (minor problem), rare (name sort of gives it away ) so world supply is low, and hence it's expensive to get. So heavy, low world supply, and expensive. For something you need in "every" car that solution is not useful.

Ah! thanks very much for this reply! I have been out of this field of study for a long time, and always wondered "whatever happened?..." Your explanation is perfectly logical.
 
When I was an undergrad in the late '80s in Materials Science, there was a professor who had developed a yttrium based alloy he called a "hydrogen sponge" -- it would soak up hydrogen and leave it inert in this alloy until a small electric current passed through it. This would release the hydrogen, which he was hoping would go into a small ceramic-block combustion engine - since hydrogen combustion is around 95% efficient. As a bonus, the process of releasing hydrogen was endothermic, so the hydrogen sponge was also the air conditioner.

I wonder whatever happened to that technology? It had drawbacks in the alloy was heavy -- and the some of the same hydrogen generation issues that the current fuel cell cars have. But storage and transport worked better than what we have today, and hydrogen ICE should be less costly and more efficient than a fuel cell.

Hmm...would that have been Prof. Omar Yaghi?

UCLA said:
The materials, which Yaghi invented in the early 1990s, are called metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), pronounced "moffs," which are like scaffolds made of linked rods — a structure that maximizes the surface area. MOFs, which have been described as crystal sponges, have pores, openings on the nanoscale in which Yaghi and his colleagues can store gases that are usually difficult to store and transport. MOFs can be made highly porous to increase their storage capacity; one gram of a MOF has the surface area of a football field! Yaghi's laboratory has made more than 500 MOFs, with a variety of properties and structures.


"We have achieved 7.5 percent hydrogen; we want to achieve this percent at ambient temperatures," said Yaghi, a member of the California NanoSystems Institute. "We can store significantly more hydrogen with the MOF material than without the MOF."


MOFs can be made from low-cost ingredients, such as zinc oxide — a common ingredient in sunscreen — and terephthalate, which is found in plastic soda bottles.


"MOFs will have many applications. Molecules can go in and out of them unobstructed. We can make polymers inside the pores with well-defined and predictable properties. There is no limit to what structures we can get, and thus no limit to the applications."


In the push to develop hydrogen fuel cells to power cars, cell phones and other devices, one of the biggest challenges has been finding ways to store large amounts of hydrogen at the right temperatures and pressures. Yaghi and his colleagues have now demonstrated the ability to store large amounts of hydrogen at the right pressure; in addition, Yaghi has ideas about how to modify the rod-like components to store hydrogen at ambient temperatures (0–45°C).


060310_hydrogen_vsml_8a.vsmall.jpg

This neutron-scattering image shows how hydrogen molecules (red-green circles) connect to what's called a metal-organic framework -- a type of custom-made compound eyed for hydrogen storage applications.

UCLA, University of Michigan Chemists Report Progress in Quest to Use Hydrogen as Fuel for Cars and Electronic Devices / UCLA Newsroom

All in all very promising, very promising indeed...Amazing what can be accomplished when the appropriate motivation is provided and development is encouraged by the powers that be.
 
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As my thesis work was done in Materials Science in the early '00 I do know a little bit about this. My professor was doing a presentation at my school about current projects earlier this month, and he talked about this. They do have even better materials now for storing hydrogen, mostly as hydrides. The problem is they all require rare-earth metals like Yttrium. They are working on a material using Nickel currently but it isn't as good as the rare-earth materials.

The reason you don't want to use rare-earth materials is that rare-earths are heavy (minor problem), rare (name sort of gives it away ) so world supply is low, and hence it's expensive to get. So heavy, low world supply, and expensive. For something you need in "every" car that solution is not useful.

Cobos
To reiterate:

UCLA said:
MOFs can be made from low-cost ingredients, such as zinc oxide — a common ingredient in sunscreen — and terephthalate, which is found in plastic soda bottles.

Perhaps it is that your professor didn't cover this particular material as "zinc oxide" and "plastic soda bottles" are pretty inexpensive, that is, unless the World's materials commodity market has taken an extremely drastic and somewhat perverse turn for the worse...or perhaps you merely weren't paying attention during this aspect of the professor's presentation"?"
 
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To reiterate:

Perhaps it is that your professor didn't cover this particular material as "zinc oxide" and "plastic sida bottles" are pretty inexpensive, that is, unless the World's materials commodity market has taken an extremely drastic and somewhat perverse turn for the worse...or perhaps you merely weren't paying attention during this aspect of the professor's presentation"?"

Since that isn't directly his field, he works with mostly SO-membranes, that covered exactly 1 slide in about 20 of them. This is work done by the Institute of Energi Research outside Oslo at a nuclear reactor. They are working on a MgxNix hydride alloy that can store much more than liquid H2. But again the process isn't efficient enough to be a viable solution commercially. So I have no problem the state or companies spending research money on this as at least we're getting good materials science research out of this. And in my eyes, using HFC for planes, boats and other large scale transport seems to make a lot more sense.

And this is in a nutshell why I think H2 for use in cars is a deadend. They still don't have a good storage solution, and that might be here in a few years. It is symptomatic though that the Honda Clarity the only "mass-produced" H2 FC car still uses the older methods of transporting hydrogen. Contrasting the Clarity to the Tesla Roadster is the clearest sign of where batterytech is now for smaller vehicles compared to HFC. And when the Model S arrives next spring the Clarity also looses it's slight edge in practicality.

Cobos