Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

The problems caused by the fossil fuel economy are well known. With the advances in fuel cell technology an economy based on hydrogen as an energy carrier is now seriously considered. The advantages of a hydrogen economy include: - ) The elimination of the pollution caused by fossil fuels - ) Elimination of greenhouse effect - ) Economic independence - ) Distributed production These benefits are so important that the push toward a hydrogen economy is very strong. However, its emergence depends on solving two main problems: Hydrogen production and storage. Hydrogen storage is particularly challenging for on-board passenger vehicles. Three technologies are presently considered: liquid hydrogen, high pressure tanks, and metal hydrides. Metal hydrides are potentially the most suitable systems for vehicular and stationary applications. Metal hydrides have high volumetric storage capacity (higher than liquid hydrogen) and could offer a technological solution for on-board or stationary applications. Our objective is to develop new metal hydride materials and new synthesis methods that could meet the industry specification. In the present research we will investigate the use of cold rolling for production of high capacity hydrogen storage material. Up to now the study of cold rolling for production of metal hydrides has been very limited. However, this technique has numerous advantages such as: easily scalable, well known by the industry, and energy efficient. If proved applicable, this technique could help in the commercialization of metal hydrides.