Eco Factor: New storage technique enables easy storage of hydrogen for fuel-cell cars.
Researchers at the Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois have developed a new technique to store hydrogen in an efficient manner to power fuel cell cars. Until now, the two most practical ways to store hydrogen have been either to freeze the gas around -250 degrees Celsius to convert it into liquid form, or use compressed gas. Both these approaches could give fuel cell cars a decent range but will require systems that will make such cars too expensive.
Now researchers have experimented with storing hydrogen inside molecular cages made from chains of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen atoms that are linked by metal ions. These metal-organic frameworks bond hydrogen by weak links, which allows the gas to be recovered simply by heating. The edible molecular cages are made from rings of glucose molecules, which in presence of water and alcohol aggregate into cubes held together by ions of potassium.
The team claims that one gram of the resulting material offers a space of about 1300sqm, equivalent to about six and a half tennis courts. Moreover, since the materials are readily available, it will be affordable.
Image Courtesy: The Modern Green
Via: New Scientist
