General Motors, US Government joins forces to Boost Hydrogen Storage

General Motors (GM) and the Department of Energy (DOE) Sandia National Laboratories have joined forces to create the design and test a new and advanced method for storing hydrogen based on metal hydrides. The success of this project is important that the fuel cell vehicle competitive with gasoline-powered cars, when it comes to driving range. In a press release last January, DOE discovered that metal hydrides, formed when metal alloys are combined with hydrogen, can absorb and store hydrogen in their structures. In a heat, the hydrides release of hydrogen. This hydrogen can then be combined with oxygen to produce electricity. This is how a fuel cell system works.
GM and Sandia have started a period of four years, $ 10 million program to develop and test tanks that store hydrogen in a complex hydride called sodium aluminum hydride, also known as sodium alanate. The mission is to develop a solid-state hydrogen storage tank with more capacity for hydrogen in a fuel cell vehicle than current conventional methods of storage. They also hope to create a new tank design, is capable of any type of solid state hydrogen storage.
" We are designing a hydrogen storage system with sophisticated thermal requirements and limits on volume and weight " says Chris Moen, director of science and technology to Sandia. " Our employees are enthusiastic researchers, their unique, science-based planning and analysis capabilities to engineer a viable solution. "
This program is part of a determined effort to improve the hydrogen storage capabilities on board a fuel cell vehicle to the driving range of a tank of gas. This fuel cell systems for consumer acceptable. Currently, the most common methods of storage are liquid and compressed gas, but neither could the required bandwidth and the running time for fuel cell vehicles.
GM is the world& 39;s largest vehicle manufacturer selling nearly 8.6 million units in 2003, or about 15 percent of the global market.
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