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MU
to Study Hydrogen Storage for Vehicles
By Katherine Kostiuk
Researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia
have been awarded a grant from the U.S.
Department of Energy to study low-pressure hydrogen storage.
The grant is part of a DOE hydrogen fuel initiative that gave
$11.2 million to 13 projects across the United States.
Peter Pfeifer, professor of physics
in the College of Arts and
Science and principal investigator for the project, will work
with M. Frederick Hawthorne, professor of radiology,
chemistry and physics
and director of the MU International Institute for Nano and Molecular
Medicine, and Carlos Wexler, associate professor of physics. The
researchers plan to use an integrated theoretical, computational
and experimental approach to develop and test hydrogen storage
materials and will focus their research on monolithic carbon made
from synthetic materials. The carbon will be crisscrossed by a
network of controlled nanopores that have boron added to them
to increase hydrogen binding energy.
The goal of this project is to increase the
storage capacity of hydrogen for use in vehicles. This research
builds on a previous project led by Pfeifer that developed corncob-based
monolithic carbon briquettes for storage of natural gas in a low-pressure,
flat tank for vehicles. Natural gas vehicles are expected to be
a stepping stone between current gasoline-fueled vehicles and
hydrogen-powered vehicles, projected by the DOE to be a commercially
available option by 2020. Hawthorne's renowned expertise in boron-carbon
chemistry will be a cornerstone of the hydrogen storage project.
Pfeifer, Hawthorne and Wexler believe they
can create storage materials that meet the DOE's 2010 targets
for vehicular hydrogen storage, which are 60 grams of hydrogen
per kilogram tank.
“I am very excited to be among the 13
proposals that were selected for funding by the DOE's Office of
Basic Energy Sciences,” Pfeifer said.
The DOE grants went to universities and national
laboratories in 10 states and Washington, DC. They are part of
a department-wide, comprehensive portfolio of basic and applied
research, technology development and demonstration projects aimed
at advancing President Bush's Hydrogen Fuel Initiative. The DOE
selected the projects through a merit-review, competitive solicitation
process.
Both the National
Academy of Sciences and the DOE have identified hydrogen storage
as a key in the successful implementation of hydrogen and fuel
cell technologies. According to the DOE Web site, use of hydrogen
as a vehicle fuel could reduce pollution and dependence on foreign
oil. Also according to the DOE, hydrogen has the highest energy
content per unit of weight of any known fuel and can be produced
from abundant domestic energy resources; types of hydrogen use
produce near-zero emissions of greenhouse gases. For more information,
see the DOE Hydrogen
Program Home Page.
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Last Update:
November 15, 2007
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