Solid storage of hydrogen in the final of the Inventor Award

Launched in 2006 by the European Patent Office (EPO), the European Inventor Award acts as an incentive among researchers. A French team has reached the final with a method to store hydrogen as a solid disc.

The prize will be awarded on 4 July in Valencia, Spain. And the competition promises to be fierce, with subjects as diverse as battery safety, sustainable fuels, corrosion-resistant steels and LED lamps that transmit high-speed Internet. Hydrogen is represented in the research category by a team comprising Albin Chaise, Patricia de Rango, Daniel Fruchart, Michel Jehan and Nataliya Skryabina. Their work focuses on solid storage of hydrogen. Initial research was carried out at the CNRS, which filed the first European patents. The technology was then transferred to partners, namely McPhy (which later abandoned the idea) and then JOMI-LEMAN. The aim was to increase production and begin marketing the product.

Solid storage of hydrogen: a revolutionary method?

The EPO website states that “the team’s ground-breaking method uses magnesium hydride mixed with metal additives and graphite to compress hydrogen into solid discs for easy storage in specially designed tanks.” But how is this better than liquid hydrogen? First, it requires less energy than other methods. Secondly, the hydrogen is also released from the tanks at relatively low pressure – around two bars. Thirdly, the discs are stable when handled and do not ignite when exposed to fire. “Crucially, they do not lose hydrogen over time and can be stored for long periods, making green hydrogen more accessible as the world combats climate change.”

Do you want to know more about solid storage of hydrogen? Then this article about the company H2 Fuel should be of interest to you.

Article written by Laurent Meillaud and translated by Logan King