Magnesium Hydride Holds Key for Storing Hydrogen

摘要

To make fuel cells practical, efficient ways must be found to transport hydrogen, an essential fuel for the cells. This issue is especially important for applications involving automotive and mobile equipment, where added weight and volume are significant drawbacks. At normal temperatures, hydrogen is a gas. In that form, hydrogen takes up too much volume to make it easily transportable. Hydrogen can be compressed and stored in high-pressure cylinders. However, such cylinders must be very strong. Hydrogen can be also stored in liquid form in small tanks. For that, however, hydrogen must be cooled to very low temperatures.