ATLAS-H2 project
ATLAS-H2 is an Industry-Academia Partnership on hydrogen storage in solid materials aiming to develop and test (in the short term) and bring to the market (in the medium to longer term) integrated advanced metal hydride tanks with high added value applications especially for stationary systems and hydrogen compression. The ATLAS-H2 project is funded by the EC programme FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IAPP.
Storing H2 without compression and energy losses is a challenge for the widespread use of hydrogen as energy carrier and the establishment of a hydrogen economy. Hydrides offer the best volumetric density for H2 storage, far better than storage in liquid state insulated reservoir or high pressure tanks. In a complete new process, thermal heat energy is stored within the metal hydride tank and is kept available for desorption with high insulating patented materials. The so called adiabatic metal hydride tanks are ideal for the storage of Renewable Energy, power peak shaving to stabilize electricity grid distribution, waste heat valorisation, but also transport applications as these new ternary alloy hydrides can feed directly fuel cells. On the other hand, compression of H2 using reversible metal hydride alloys offers an economical alternative to traditional mechanical hydrogen compressors. Hydride compressors are compact, silent, do not have dynamic seals, require very little maintenance and can operate unattended for long periods. When powered by waste heat, energy consumption is only a fraction of that required for mechanical compression, which reduces the cost of H2 production and storage. The simplicity and passive operation of the hydride compression process offers many advantages over mechanical compressors. The main ATLAS-H2 objectives will be achieved by implementing a well structured IAPP program between two high level European Research Institutes (the National Centre for Scientific Research Demokritos from Greece & the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique from France) and two key SME partners ( Hystore Technologies Ltd from Cyprus & McPhy Energy SA from France), all having considerable background on hydrogen storage, materials R&D and energy systems.
