Progress in hydrogen production and storage technologies

Available hydrogen production and storage technologies do not fulfil the economical, technical and environmental requirements of a hydrogen economy. Existing technological options are characterised and discussed. New technological solutions, investigated at the Institute of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Technologies of TU Graz, are presented. For hydrogen production with low environmental impact, the combination of production, purification and storage in one technology, the reformer-steam-iron process, is introduced. This process integrates conventional steam reforming with a chemical looping process in order to produce pure pressurised hydrogen. For storage a liquid chemical hydrogen storage system based on the borohydride anion is developed. The storage medium is either catalytically dehydrogenated, or is directly fed into a direct borohydride fuel, cell.