Fundamental Study on the Establishment of Innovative System on Hydrogen Storage and Transportation using Lithium Hydride.

近年来，从高效利用能源和节约环境的角度出发，氢能得到了广泛的发展，如燃料电池技术。然而，由于氢的密度较低，沸点极低，目前还没有建立起有效的储存和运输方法。为氢化锂、氢化锂的室温储运提供了一种新的方法。让金属锂与氢气反应生成氢化锂，并根据需要运输到地方。氢气是由LiH与水蒸气反应生成的。然后，LiOH作为反应的副产物生成，必须返回以生产金属锂，以建立使用LiH的整个氢气利用循环。在本研究中，成功地开发了LiOH熔盐电解法生产锂，并阐明了金属锂与氢的反应机理。

Hydrogen energy is widely developed recently from the viewpoint of efficient energy utilization and the environmental conservation such as a fuel cell technology. However, efficient methods for the storage and transportation are not yet established due the lower density and extremely low boiling temperature of hydrogen. Therefore, authors made an offer new method for the storage and transportation using lithium hydride, LiH at room temperature. Metallic lithium is let to react with hydrogen to form lithium hydride and is transported to the place on demand. The hydrogen is generated by reacting of LiH with water vapor. Then, LiOH is generated as a by-product of the reaction and must be returned to produce metallic lithium for establishing the whole cycle of hydrogen utilization using LiH. In this study, lithium production from LiOH through the molten salt electrolysis was successfully developed, and the mechanism of the reaction of metallic lithium with hydro- gen was made clear.