Pump up the gas [hydrogen storage for transport applications]

This article examines the use of hydrogen as fuel for transport applications and the problems encountered in its storage. Firstly it outlines the current compressed hydrogen and liquid hydrogen schemes and their drawbacks. It then focusses on the use of solid state and porous storage materials such as metal hydrides and the ongoing research in this area. The goal is to develop a solid-state hydrogen storage tank that will not only store more hydrogen on board a fuel cell vehicle, compared to compressed and liquid hydrogen, but could be adaptable to any type of solid-state hydrogen storage. The article also discusses the use of this technology in consumer and portable power electronics.