On-Board and Off-Board Technologies for Hydrogen Storage

Abstract

Future energy systems will be determined by the increasing relevance of renewable energy resources due to global warming, energy crisis, and pollution. Hydrogen is considered one of the promising alternative fuels to replace oil, but its storage remains a significant challenge. The main hydrogen storage technologies can be broadly classified as physical, chemical, and hybrid methods. The physical methods rely on compression and liquefaction of hydrogen, and currently, compressed hydrogen storage is the most mature technology that is commercially available. The chemical methods utilize materials to store hydrogen, and hydrogen can be extracted by on-board regenerable or off-board regenerable chemical reactions depending on the type of material. Hybrid methods take advantage of both physical and chemical storage methods. The most prominent hybrid method is the cryo-adsorption hydrogen storage which utilizes physisorption-based porous materials. The chapter describes these technologies and discusses alternative/novel hydrogen storage material technologies.