Recycled metal alloys allow circular economy for solid-state hydrogen storage<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not only the production of green hydrogen, but also its safe and compact storage is a major challenge for the energy transition. Metal hydrides could be a good solution – they can store large quantities of hydrogen in a small space. However, the mining and production of the up to now required high-purity materials emit large amounts of carbon dioxide. Researchers of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon now demonstrated, that hydrogen storage materials can also be produced from recycled industrial waste. The result: a significantly more climate-friendly production of hydrogen storage materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whether it is cars, energy or mobile phones: modern society is built on metals and our future strongly depends on these materials, too. To store hydrogen in a safe, compact and still environmentally friendly way is still a major challenge. Metal hydrides could be an appealing solution, especially for those applications where the volume and safety of the storage system is an issue \u2013 for example, in stationary storages, in hydrogen refueling stations or ships \u2013 as they can provide a very high storage density. High-purity metals are commonly used to produce these storage materials. Despite their advantages, the mining and large-scale production of these materials is a heavy burden on the environment as they emit large amounts of greenhouse gases, not to speak of the impact of mining of the raw materials on the landscape itself. Researchers at the Hereon Institute of Hydrogen Technology have now shown that high-quality hydrogen storage materials can also be produced from less pure industrial metal wastes. These findings allow for the first time to use a circular economy strategy to produce metal hydrides. As a result, their production is much more environmentally friendly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n