Redox Switchable Hydrogen Storage Materials. Hydrogen Burst Device Prototypes

污染、气候变化、主要石化生产国日益加剧的政治不稳定以及移动应用对更高存储密度的需求相结合，使寻找新的可持续能源载体成为21世纪的关键学术和技术挑战之一。氢可能是完美的燃料，因为它燃烧清洁，热值高，而且副产品水的产生过程对环境无害。氢气储存吸引了大量的政治支持。然而，在实现所谓的氢经济方面，关键挑战依然存在。以适当规模、可持续和高能效的方式生产和分配氢气是一项重大挑战。然而，需要克服的最大技术问题是在生产和使用之间有效地储存氢气。我们的研究已经确定了一种基本的储氢材料，它克服了目前技术的一些限制。优点是：在室温下工作，释放/存储由电荷控制，不需要真空或超压工作，在电触发之前安全地保持氢气，非常快的释放(&lt；1秒)和快速(&lt；1分钟)充电，能够廉价地生产存储系统。然而，储氢能力低于汽车大容量储存的要求。虽然我们希望显着改善这一点，但我们并不指望达到金属氢化物的水平。因此，我们看到了与当前氢存储方案相关或协同的领域的商业潜力。在这个项目的过程中，我们希望探索该技术的独特功能为两个主要商业应用领域带来显著好处的应用。首先，快速释放/充电特性表明，该系统可用作高需求时期的氢气缓冲器。其次，我们认为，存储系统可以作为硅芯片或其他大容量薄膜制造工艺的一部分，从而实现移动电话、遥控器等的微型氢气存储。也可能有其他非燃料应用，需要小质量的氢气，或需要从工艺中提取氢气等。在本研究项目结束时，我们打算有一个工作原型演示设备，将展示我们新技术的潜在优势。此外，商业发展计划将允许探索潜在市场，并为长期投资的合作伙伴提供资金。

The combination of pollution, climate change, increasing political instability in key petrochemical production nations and the need for increased power storage densities for mobile applications has made the search for new and sustainable energy vectors as being one of the key academic and technological challenges in the 21st centaury. Hydrogen potentially could be the perfect fuel due to its clean combustion, high heating value and the environmentally benign process that produces water as the by-product. Hydrogen storage attracts significant political support. Key challenges remain, however, in the delivery of the so called- hydrogen economy . The production and distribution of H2 on an appropriate scale, sustainable and energy efficient manner are important challenges. However, the greatest technical problem to overcome is the effective means of storage of hydrogen between production and use. Our research has identified a fundamental material for hydrogen storage that overcomes some of the limitations of the current technologies. The benefits are: works at room temperature, release/storage controlled by electrical charge, does not need a vacuum or overpressure to work, holds hydrogen safely until triggered electrically, very fast release (<1sec) and fast (<1minute) recharge, the ability to produce the storage system cheaply. However the hydrogen storage capacity is lower than required for bulk storage for vehicles. While we hope to improve this significantly we do not expect to reach the levels obtained by metal hydrides. We therefore see the commercial potential lying in related or synergistic areas to the current hydrogen storage schemes.During the course of this project we wish to explore applications where the unique features of the technology offer significant benefits to two main commercial applications areas. Firstly the fast release/recharge characteristic suggests that this system may be useful as a hydrogen buffer for periods of high demand. Secondly we believe that a storage system could be produced as part of a silicon chip or other high volume thin film manufacturing process, thus allowing micro-storage of hydrogen for mobile phones, remote sensors etc. There may also be other non fuel based applications where hydrogen is needed in small qualities, or hydrogen needs to be extracted from a process etc.At the end of this research project we intend to have a working prototype demonstrator device that will demonstrate the potential advantages of our new technolgy. Along side this a commerial development plan will allow potential markets to be explored and funding partners for longer term investment engaged.