The main goal of the project is to provide a metal hydride with the following hydrogenation properties, which are recently not provided by any commercially available hydrogen storage alloy:
- hydrogen storage capacity of (H/M): >1.8; mass fraction of stored hydrogen: >2.5; volume fraction of stored hydrogen >0.15kg/l
- working gas pressure: below 25bar
- working temperature: use waste heat from fuel cell, operating temp. of PEM: below: 300°C
- lower desorption temperature: decomposition temperature below 200°C
- fast hydrogen absorption and desorption kinetics: fast activatability / initial hydrogen uptake; full charge-discharge cycle times: in the order of a few minutes only, absorption rate to complete saturation: <2min
- enhanced cycle life (durability and reliability), high mechanical stability (stresses due to volume expansion with hydrogen uptake), lowest material degradation
In order to achieve these goals, the following sub-objectives will be fulfilled upon completion of the project:
Objective 1
Development of advanced metal hydride alloys and composites based on high entropy alloys (HEA) and MXenes for hydrogen storage and characterization of their hydrogenation properties.
Objective 2
Fundamental understanding of the influence of the chemical composition on the behaviour and performance during the hydrogenation and dehydrogenation process
Objective 3
Digital and experimental development of processing/forming technologies for setting defined microstructure properties (porosity/surface area, particle size, grain size, lattice defects) of metal hydrides and characterization of their hydrogenation properties.
Objective 4
Studying the influence of microstructure properties and destabilization effects by different processing technologies on the hydrogenation properties of metal hydrides
Objective 5
Establishing a correlation between chemical composition, microstructure and hydrogenation properties and optimizing weight fractions and process parameters to enhance hydrogenation properties of the advanced lightweight metal hydrides
Objective 6
Testing the suitability of developed materials for structural applications in energetics with special attention to high-temperature mechanical and oxidation properties.