Nanophase materials for hydrogen storage applications

Hydrogen storage is a major challenge for future use of hydrogen as an energy carrier. The long-term solution is considered to be hydrogen storage in solid compounds. However, even after extensive research for several years, the present materials do still not fulfil the requirements for vehicular applications. A new and promising approach is to reduce the particle sizes to the nano-scale. This will improve kinetics of hydrogen absorption and desorption and also change the thermodynamics, but the understan ding is still limited about these effects. Thus the main objective of the proposed collaboration between India and Norway in this area is studies of nanophase materials for hydrogen storage applications. Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) and Universit y of Oslo (UiO) in Norway and Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) in India have significant experience in studies of hydrogen storage materials in general and also recently on nanophase materials. The pre-project will initiate collaboration betwe en these institutions in this area, and the planned activity will involve both exchange of personnel between Norway and India and two workshops, one in India and one in Norway. The overall goal is to establish a long-term collaboration.