Hydrogen fuelled utility vehicles and their support systems utilising metal hydrides

General Information

The goal of this project is in addressing critical issues towards a commercial implementation of hydrogen powered utility vehicles (test case – forklift) using Metal Hydride (MH) hydrogen storage and Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cells, together with the systems for their refueling at industrial customers facilities. For these applications, high specific weight of the metallic hydrides is an advantage, as it fits a purpose of vehicle counterbalancing without an extra cost. However, slow H2 charge / discharge of the MH systems, complexity of their design and high cost, together with efficiency of system integration remain great challenges to overcome.
Various efficient and cost-competitive solutions including
(i) advanced MH materials for hydrogen storage and compression,
(ii) advanced MH containers characterized by improved charge-discharge dynamic performance and ability to be mass produced,
(iii) integrated hydrogen storage and compression / refueling systems will be developed and tested together with PEM fuel cells.
The HYDRIDE4MOBILITY project addresses these problems by a collective effort of a consortium containing experienced, high profile academic teams and industrial partners from two EU Member States (Germany, Croatia), one associated country (Norway) and two third countries (South Africa, Indonesia). The consortium members have a strong expertise in hydride materials science, manufacturing of the advanced hydrogen storage materials, design and manufacturing of gas sorption reactors, fuel cell system integration, as well as in manufacturing of the fuel cell power modules, utility vehicles, and their optimization for the customer. The work will strengthen already existing and will establish new collaborative links. This will allow overcoming the challenges associated with implementation of Metal Hydride technologies in transportation and in promoting their commercialization in the European countries contributing to the project consortium.
HZG leads the work packages “Development of cost efficient metal hydride containers with a focus on their mass Production” and “Communication and Dissemination”.

EU-Programme Acronym and Subprogramme Area	H2020-MSCA-RISE-2017
Project Type	Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE)
Contract Number	Grant Agreement 778307
Co-ordinator	Institute for Energy Technology (NO)

Funding for the Project (€)	Funding for HZG (€)
355,500	85,500

Contact Person at HZG

Dr. Klaus Taube, Institute of Materials Research, WTN, Phone: +49 4152 87 2541, Fax : +49 4152 87 2636 E-mail contact

Participants

Hystorsys AS (NO), Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd (ZA), Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ID), Institute for Energy Technology (NO), TF Design (Pty) Ltd (ZA), University of Split Faculty of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (HR), University of Western Cape (ZA)

Last Update: 15. December 2020