Staff: Dr David Book, [Prof Rex Harris, Dr John Speight – Honorary]

Research Fellows:

Dr Allan Walton (SCRA Fellow), Dr Vicky Mann, Dr Alex Bevan, Dan Reed, Sean Fletcher, Steve Tedds, [Simon Cannon – technician]

PG Students:

Rob Bell, Yinghe Zhang, David Brampton, Dr Ruixia Liu, Xiaodong Yi, Dan Amos, Lydia Pickering, James Warren, George Simpson, Peter Abell, Zhuo Wang

Hydrogen Materials Group (www.hydrogen.bham.ac.uk)

Materials Synthesis

• High-pressure ball-mill (100 bar) • Melt-spinning system (alloy quenching)

• Magnetron sputtering system (thin-film preparation)

•High-pressure hydrogenation rig (700 bar)

Materials Characterisation

•2 x Sieverts Volumetric PCT system (200 bar)

• 3 x constant-pressure TGAs – Hiden IGAs (20 bar)

• DSC (100 bar) • 1000°C TGA (1 bar) • Confocal Laser Microscope

• X-ray Diffractometer with 2 H2 pressure cells (& mass spec)

•Dispersive Raman spectrometer with 2 H2 cells (high & low temp)

www.hydrogen.bham.ac.uk

• “Pd membranes provide < 1 ppb purity with any gas quality” - JM

Hydrogen Separation Membranes

• PEM Fuel Cells are poisioned by: CO > 10 ppm, and Sulphur at ~1 ppb• Research into combined hydrocarbon reformation / separation reactors• New Pd-Y, Pd-Cu based alloys • Thin-film composites constructed

www.hydrogen.bham.ac.uk

Complex Hydrides: poor reversibility

LiBH4

500

Magnesium

Porous Materials

Carbon

nanoC

LaNi5

TEM (60 hrs milled)

100 nm

Hydrogen absorption 300°C,10 bar

www.hydrogen.bham.ac.uk

Hydrogen Isotherms for MOF Cu-BTC (BASF)

77 K

S. Tedds, A. Walton, D. Book

131 K

END

www.hydrogen.bham.ac.uk

www.hydrogen.bham.ac.uk

“Chemical and Physical Solutions for Hydrogen Storage”, U. Eberle, M. Felderhoff, F. Schüth, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 48, pp.2 – 25, 2009

Weight of energy storage systems to take a car 500 km

Solid-state Hydrogen Storage

Andreas Züttel, Switzerland, 04/11/239

4 kg hydrogen

110l57l33l26l

Mg2FeH6 LaNi5H6 H2 (liquid) H2 (200 bar)

Louis Schlapbach & Andreas Züttel, NATURE, 414, p.353, (2001)

www.hydrogen.bham.ac.uk

HYDROGEN DENSITY

Ref: A. Züttel, “Materials for hydrogen storage”, Materials Today, September (2003), pp. 18-27

HcovH

H2

www.hydrogen.bham.ac.ukA. Zuettel, A. Borgschulte, Int. Symp. on H2 Energy, Richmond, USA, 12-15 Nov 2007

www.hydrogen.bham.ac.uk

EPSRC SUPERGEN “UK Sustainable Hydrogen Energy Consortium” (Apr 03 - Apr 11)(inc. Bham-Chem, Nott-Mat, Nott-Chem, UCL, Oxford, STFC, Bath, Glasgow, Salford)

EC FP6 “Novel Efficient Solid Storage for Hydrogen” (Jan 06 - Dec 10)(inc. Daimler, JM, Air Liquide, Max Planck, CNRS, NCSRD, EMPA, Delft,…)

“Polymer-based Hydrogen Storage Materials” (July 06 - July 10)with Cardiff Uni (Neil McKeown), Manchester Uni (Peter Budd)

“Supply Chain Research Applied To Clean Hydrogen (SCRATCH)” (Apr 07 - Apr 10)ChemEng (Kevin Kendall), Biosci (Lynne Macaskie), Econ (Richard Green), Met&Mat (David Book)

Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform / TSB (Dec 06 - May 09)“Hydrogen Permeable Novel Membranes” (HYPNOMEM)

Research Projects & Networks

AWM Science City “Hydrogen Energy Project” (April 07 - March 09)£6.3M for equipment for Birmingham and Warwick Universities

EPSRC SUPERGEN “Delivery of Sustainable Hydrogen” (Oct 08 - Oct 12)(inc. St Andrews, Leeds, Warwick, Imperial, Cambridge, Manchester, Cardiff Uni’s)

“UK-Japan Hydrogen Storage Research Network” (Apr 07- May 09) Workshops for Universities / National Labs in the UK & Japan

DIUS / FCO “UK/KOREA Focal Point Programme for H2 Storage” (Apr 07 - Apr 09)Workshops for Universities in the UK & Korea

International Energy Agency Task 22 (2002-06, 2006-10, …)“Fundamental and applied hydrogen storage materials development”

www.hydrogen.bham.ac.uk

PCT curves of the Ti(1−x)VxMn alloys at 293 K.

M. Shibuya et al.JALCOM 466 (2008) p.558

New Metal Hydrides for Hybrid “High-Pressure / Hydride” Stores

www.hydrogen.bham.ac.uk Andreas Züttel, University of Fribourg, 15.12.200225

COMPLEX HYDRIDESCOMPLEX HYDRIDES

Examples:NaAlH4

Mg(AlH4)2

LiBH4

Mg(BH4)2

Al(BH4)3

+ -

www.hydrogen.bham.ac.uk

2NaBH4 + ZnCl2 Zn(BH4)2 + 2NaCl - NO

i) As-Received M(BH4)n (M=Li, Ca,…)

TGA & MS for 2NaBH4 + ZnCl2 Milled for 60 min

ii) Metathesis M(BH4)n (M=Zn, Mn…)

5NaBH4 + 2ZnCl2 NaZn2(BH4)5 + 4NaCl