Hydrogen fuel-cells hold great promise for clean, sustainable fuel for automobiles. But high costs and high-pressure storage tanks have relegated fuel cell vehicles to a handful of test fleets, and it is a techonlogy whose day may never come. But researchers at Berkeley Labs are working on a metal-organic framework that can store enough hydrogen for 300+ mile tripsin a cost effective, low-pressure capsule.Working with a three-year, $2.1 million grant from the US Department of Energy, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and GM, Berkeley National Labrotory are producing a metal-organic framework material. The metal-organic framework, or MOF, is a three-dimensional sponge-like lightweight structure composed mostly of carbon atoms. Using synthetic chemicals, these MOF’s can be modified to suck up tremendous amounts of hydrogen.
So far the research has allowed MOF’s to store more than double the amount of hydrogen of current high-pressure tanks, but has only been about to do so at temperatures in the range of – 321 F. But researchers believe that MOF’s have the ability to store four or five times the amount of hydrogen at room temperature, resulting in a safe, low-pressure hydrogen storage solution.
This project is very much so in its early stages, but it is exciting to see some of the creative solutions scientists the world over are working on in terms of our energy future. Hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles may yet stand a chance.
Source: Berkeley Lab News Center | Image: Mona Makela via Shutterstock
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About Christopher DeMorro
