Tue, 26 March, 2024
TWI Project Engineer Data Analyst, Georgia Schneider took some time to discuss the challenges associated with the MAST3RBoost project and the aim of improving hydrogen storage.
Hydrogen fuel cells have been shown to outperform batteries in all relevant indicators, meaning that they could provide the solution for decarbonising the European transport sector, which accounts for around one-third of all EU CO2 emissions.
This is particularly important for industries that have high levels of fuel consumption, such as rail, aerospace and shipping, but could also be applied to trucks, buses and other commercial vehicles.
Because hydrogen is a small molecule that contains a lot of energy as well as having a low weight-to-volume ratio it can be challenging to store it as a fuel source. Hydrogen is able to permeate through materials, leading to hydrogen embrittlement while its low density means that it takes up a lot of space to store unless it can be compressed to reduce the density.
MAST3RBoost aims to increase the capacity of ultraporous materials that could provide a solution for hydrogen storage at low pressures.
Developing new materials can be a time-consuming process but the use of mathematical models can speed this process up and reduce the associated costs.
You can watch Georgia’s interview, below:
Find out more about the MAST3RBoost project on the dedicated project website, here.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe's research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101058574. TWI's work in this project is funded by Innovate UK under grant no 10040807.