Basic Hydrogen Storage Technologies

Compression of hydrogen is carried out in the same way as for natural gas and thus the procedure is well tested and readily available. It is sometimes even possible to use the same compressors, as long as appropriate Teflon-made gaskets are used provided that the compressed gas is guaranteed to be oil free. Almost all common natural gas compressors can be easily modified to be suitable for hydrogen. New developments are mainly associated with the optimisation of the individual units, with the primary application being in this case the high-pressure compression at service stations. 

The science and technology of reversible metal hydrides, or in other words, the hydriding and dehydriding (H/D) of metals (M) by both direct dissociative chemisorption of H2 gas (Equation 3.15) and electrochemical (Equation 3.16) splitting of H20 are very simple, as described by Zaluska et al. (2001)  

Carbon-based adsorbents such as activated carbons, carbon nanotubes, and carbon nanofibres have been the subject of intensive research over the past 15 years. The research on hydrogen storage in carbon materials was dominated by announcements of extraordinary high storage capacities in carbon nanostructures. 

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It is expected that the hydrogen economy will require two basic technological frameworks of hydrogen storage systems, one for stationary and another for mobile applications. Each framework has its own constraints and requirements however it is evident that mobile applications are more demanding, as they face the following requirements (Agrawal et al., 2005 Edwards etal., 2007) ... 

Hydrogen production, onboard storage and distribution technologies are reviewed in Chap. 2, while basic concepts of electrochemistry are recalled in Chap. 3, with an assessment of the state of development of fuel cells for automotive applications, in terms of performance and durability. 

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