The Project
This project is focused on the search for innovative materials to realize high capacity storage cells characterized by quick release times, suitable for practical applications. Among the solutions proposed and studied up to now, the storage as chemical energy by means of hydrogen will be addressed here.
The combustion reaction between hydrogen and oxygen gives an amount of energy for fuel unit mass three times higher than that of gasoline. Unfortunately, under standard conditions, hydrogen is a low density gas and it should be used in the liquid state to obtain its volumetric energy density comparable with that of the fossil fuels. Liquid H2 must be stored at -243 °C at ambient pressure in very expensive cryogenic containers, and this constraint makes the solution hardly practicable, especially for on-board uses.
Project Plan
The project will last two years and will be articulated in 6 different work-packages (WP), with different aims and durations. The WPs overlie one another, while the scientific work of the three research units will well integrate during the different research steps.