Making hydrogen storage materials from industrial waste

Researchers from Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon have been working on the storage of Hydrogen in Metal Hydrides. For hydrogen to be effectively used as a fuel, not only must it be made in a green way, it must be stored safely.  Metal hydrides are a good solution for they can store large quantities of hydrogen in a small space. However, the mining and production of the  materials emits a large amount of carbon dioxide. Producing hydrogen storage materials from recycled Magnesium industrial waste could become an effective way of making very pure metal hydrides at a significantly lower cost and with out much Carbon Dioxide production. Metal hydrides can  store hydrogen at low pressures and moderate temperatures in a safe and compact way. The metal compounds are first ground into fine powders have a high affinity for hydrogen. Once exposed to hydrogen the metals bond with the single hydrogen atoms resulting in hydride species. This process can easily be reversed by increasing the temperature. In this way the metal hydrides can bind hydrogen in large amounts and release it.

M. Passing et al.; Development and experimental validation of kinetic models for the hydrogenation/dehydrogenation of Mg/Al based metal waste for energy storage; Journal of Magnesium and Alloys; 2022.



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