Recent developments in hydrogen storage applications based on metal hydrides

Metal hydrides have been commercialized for battery applications for more t han 8 years. In case of storage applications, metal hydrides were extensive ly evaluated in combination with combustion engines. The relatively low gra vimetric energy density of hydride tanks based on low temperature metal hyd rides prevented the commercial use of that technology. Recently, Pasting pr ogress in the PEM fuel cell technology offers chances for metal hydride sto rage systems mainly for Pow power applications, but also for niche markets. The paper describes promising projects on metal hydride storage technology and gives an outlook about improvements of both the metal hydride alloy pe rformance and the performance of metal hydride storage tanks. (C) 1999 Else vier Science S.A. All rights reserved.