Hydrogen energy for tomorrow: Advanced hydrogen transport and storage technologies

摘要

The future use of hydrogen to generate electricity, heat homes and businesses, and fuel vehicles will require the creation of a distribution infrastructure of safe, and cost-effective transport and storage. Present storage methods are too expensive and will not meet the performance requirements of future applications. Transport technologies will need to be developed based on the production and storage systems that come into use as the hydrogen energy economy evolves. Different applications will require the development of different types of storage technologies. Utility electricity generation and home and office use will have storage fixed in one location--stationary storage--and size and weight will be less important than energy efficiency and costs of the system. Fueling a vehicle, however, will require hydrogen storage in an ''on-board'' system--mobile storage--with weight and size similar to the gasoline tank in today's vehicle. Researchers are working to develop physical and solid-state storage systems that will meet these diverse future application demands. Physical storage systems and solid-state storage methods (metal hydrides, gas-on-solids adsorption, and glass microspheres) are described.