High Demand for Hydrogen Storage Led by Transportation Application

Hydrogen can be stored in a gaseous or liquid form. Hydrogen storage is a technology used for advancing fuel cell technologies. It possesses the highest energy per mass compared to any other fuel.

Hydrogen storage in gaseous form needs high-pressure tanks usually ranging from 350 bar to 700 bar or 5,000 psi to 10,000 psi tank pressure. The hydrogen storage in liquid form needs cryogenic temperature, due to the extreme boiling point, that is -252.8°C.

The high-density hydrogen storage is challenging for potable and stationary applications. It remains still challenging in its transportation applications. Presently, the available storage options need large-volume systems for hydrogen storage in its gaseous form.

The fuel-cell-powered vehicles need efficient hydrogen to offer a driving range of more than 300 miles to quickly and easily refuel it. Several light-duty hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles depend on compressed gas onboard storage that involves high-pressure, and large-volume composite vessels.

Considering the mass, hydrogen has around three times the energy content of that of gasoline- 120 MJ/kg for hydrogen compare to 44 MJ/kg for gasoline. In the case of volume, the scenario changes; the density of liquid hydrogen is 8MJ/L, while gasoline has a density of 32 MJ/L.

Cryogenic Liquid Storage

Hydrogen in liquid form can be stored cryogenically. The low temperatures resist it from boiling off and converting into a gas. The density of liquid hydrogen is higher compared to gaseous hydrogen. But, getting it down to the needed temperature can be expensive. Moreover, facilities and storage tanks for cryogenic liquid hydrogen storage need to be insulated to avoid evaporation. The demand for liquid hydrogen is rising for applications, due to its purity level and space travel usage.

Combined Cold-and-Cryo-Compressed Hydrogen

The combined cryogenic cooling and compression methods are used to develop hydrogen storage. For instance, the hydrogen needs to be cooled, before compressing. It brings it higher energy density compared to compressed hydrogen. But the cryogenic liquid storage needs more energy to acquire such density.

Materials-Based Hydrogen Storage

Hydrogen can be stored in both compressed gaseous, or liquid form, by utilizing these materials. There are usually three types of hydrogen storage tanks, those which utilize adsorption on the material’s surface to store hydrogen, those which use absorption for hydrogen storage within the material, as well as hydride storage that utilizes a combination of liquid and solid materials.

The molecules and atoms of hydrogen molecules attach to the material surface in the adsorption. In this process, the hydrogen gets attached to materials with high surface areas, such as microporous crystalline zeolites, and microporous organometallic framework compounds.

The adsorption of hydrogen to materials in powder form can help in achieving high volumetric storage densities led by increased sorbent surface area.

During the last few years, the usage of hydrogen storage increased sharply in the transportation sector. This was because of its high requirement in power fuel cell automobiles, on account of its low cost and high-storage performance. Additionally, as per the estimates of the World Nuclear Association, the requirement for hydrogen for producing transport fuels from crude oil will rise rapidly in the future years. This will, in turn, fuel the demand for hydrogen storage in the coming years.

Besides the above-mentioned factors, the rapid advancements being made in hydrogen and fuel cell technologies are also driving the demand for hydrogen storage across the world. Furthermore, the governments of many countries are enacting various policies such as new funding opportunity (FOA) for propelling the utilization of hydrogen storage. For example, in the U.K., the government made an investment of $2.21 million in the development of 100 additional hydrogen fuel cell cars and vans on May 10, 2016.

Additionally, the implementation of strict emission policies in Japan, India, South Korea, and China and the growing requirement for methanol and ammonia are predicted to push up the demand for hydrogen storage throughout the world in the forthcoming years. Lubricant and oil and gas industries are increasingly requiring hydrogen storage technologies, thereby fueling the global demand for the technology. This is subsequently causing the growth of the global hydrogen storage market.

The demand for this technology is also predicted to soar in the coming years, on account of the rising utilization of stored hydrogen in various end-use applications such as crude oil refining, glass production, transportation, metal working, and ammonia production. Transportation, stationary-power, and portable-power are the major application areas of hydrogen storage. Out of these, the usage of hydrogen storage is predicted to grow rapidly in the transportation sector in the upcoming years.

Globally, the hydrogen storage market recorded the highest growth in Asia-Pacific (APAC) in the past. The region will also witness rapid expansion of the industry in the future. This will be because of the rising utilization of the methanol made from hydrogen and the growing usage of various environment-friendly transportation fuels in the region. Additionally, the burgeoning requirement for ammonia in various manufacturing plants in India and China will add wings to the hydrogen storage demand in the coming years.

Hence, it is safe to say that the requirement for hydrogen storage will shoot-up across the world in the forthcoming years, mainly because of the rising usage of the technology in the transportation, lubricants, and oil and gas industries.

The major companies operating in the industry are Hexagon Composites ASA, Air Liquid SA, Praxair Inc., Linde AG, Worthington Industries Inc., INOXCVA, and others.

Therefore, the automotive application of hydrogen as fuel propels the demand for hydrogen storage.