Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

Hydrogen for use in fuel cells and combustion provides the promise of being one of the few long-term solutions to the improvement of energy efficiency, energy sustainability, energy security and the reduction of greenhouse gases and urban pollution. Production and proper storage of hydrogen, however, are on-going challenges for scientists and engineers. Because hydrogen is a gas, compression to high pressures (a few hundred atmospheric pressure) and specially designed tanks are currently required for its storage. Both the tank and compression process are expensive and involve some safety risks. An alternative method is to use solid materials which can absorb hydrogen and release it upon demand. An example of these materials include solids such as MgH2, LaNi5H, NaAlH4. A canister (of any size) can thus be filled with a powder like LaNi5H and be "charged" with hydrogen by introducing pressurized hydrogen and "discharged" by (typically) applying some heat and lowering the pressure. A practical candidate material should meet these important requirements: a) good hydrogen to solid weight ratio, b) fast absorption/desorption processes, c) good charge/discharge cycling life and d) cost effective. Various research organization, notably the US Department of Energy, have defined precise and quantitative target goals for each of the above requirements. Currently, there is no material which meets the desired targets, thus there is a tremendous research effort to develop materials which are suitable for storing hydrogen. This includes synthesizing new materials and measuring the above mentioned properties. Determination of these properties in general is not a trivial task and requires state-of-the-art equipment and must to be performed carefully and judiciously. This proposal asks for NSERC funding to purchase gas sorption equipment that allows our labs to conduct state-of-the-art measurements. The equipment will be used by several research groups at UBC. Besides hydrogen storage applications, it will be also used by hydrogen production researchers, who study various different alloy-based membranes for hydrogen production reactors.