Russian Space Program Tech Leads to Hydrogen Storage Breakthrough

2009-12-15


Breakthrough uses capillary array to store hydrogen

Many alternative fuel sources are being eyed to help reduce pollution and our need for imported oil. Among these alternative power sources are solar power, electricity, and hydrogen among others.

Hydrogen is an alternative fuel that is being heavily researched. The big barriers from using hydrogen today are the facts that the gas is highly volatile and it is difficult to store safely. In September, researchers in America announced that they had made a hydrogen storage breakthrough using chemical hydrides.

BusinessWeek reports that a new breakthrough has been made on storing hydrogen safely that has stemmed from technology that the Russian's developed for their space program. Moshe Stern, an Israeli entrepreneur, was approached by a Russian scientist Evgeny Velikohov in 2005 about adapting the technology for the storage of hydrogen. The storage method uses what is known as capillary arrays.

The capillary array is a bundle of long, thin tubes of extremely strong glass. The complete array can store as much as three times the amount of hydrogen that a conventional steel container used to store hydrogen today. The technology recently received an endorsement from a German institute known as the Federal Institute for Materials Research & Testing (BAM) for its safety.

BAM spokesman Kai Holtapples said, "The lightweight storage and safety factors give the technology a huge commercial potential for a whole range of industries."

Stern's company working on the tech is called C.En. The company has announced that it will license out the technology to corporate customers. Stern said, "We're planning to license out the technology on a company-by-company basis, with the first agreement during 2010."

If the C.En system and its glass capillaries can withstand pressure, they could be used eventually in cars and electronic devices to store hydrogen for power. So far, the C.En company has been able to raise $25 million in funds from investors in the U.S., Russia, South Korea, and other countries to research and develop its array.