WA scientists are gathering momentum in the race to be first in the world to make economical hydrogen cars thanks to groundbreaking research into tiny magnesium nanoparticles. 

Scientists are working to make more economical hydrogen fueled cars / Image - Courtesy istockphoto

Professor Craig Buckley says although it is easy to bond magnesium with hydrogen, magnesium requires a temperature of 300 degrees Celsius to desorb the hydrogen at atmospheric pressure.
 
“So the idea is to lower that temperature to get the hydrogen out.  We’re looking at the theory that if you reduce the size of those metal particles, down to nanoparticles, you can change the thermodynamics.

“Which means you can actually change the conditions such as the temperature at which hydrogen is absorbed/desorbed by the material, which is very important.

“It will be very hard to make dispersed nanoparticles less than seven nanometres but we’ve shown experimentally that with magnesium, if you get particles down to seven nanometres, you can actually lower the hydrogen absorption/desorption temperature.”

Prof Buckley says this result had been predicted theoretically, but had never been proven experimentally before now.

Their research, ‘Thermodynamic Changes in Mechanochemically Synthesised Magnesium Hydride Nanoparticles’, has been accepted for publication in the prestigious Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Prof Buckley says ultimately the goal is to get the nanoparticles so small they only need to be heated to 100 degrees Celsius to release hydrogen.

“This will be tricky, but if we succeed, we will have helped provide a real solution for a low-carbon future.

“We are already working with aluminium but to form what they call alane (A1H₃), you have to go to very high pressures such as 2.5 giga-pascals which is outrageous.

“Using the same principle we would also like to show a way of lowering the hydrogen pressure required to introduce hydrogen into aluminium, so that we can form A1H₃, and those are the two main area’s we are working on.”

Comments (6)

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written by HappyChappy :) , July 22, 2010

YAY!!! :D This is great news! Hope it works out and gets to the public. :)

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written by Irvine Leonard, July 23, 2010

This is all very admirable but from where are we going to get the Hydrogen to run the cars. It's not like you can just go out and mine or harvest the gas.
It is bonded to other compounds and it takes a lot of energy to release it.
Surely there is a more energy efficient way to facilitate transport?

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written by AussieArtist, July 23, 2010

After your comment I looked up on the production of hydrogen, and this is what I found on Wikipedia.

Pearl Hydrogen Power Sources of Shanghai, China, unveiled a hydrogen bicycle at the 9th China International Exhibition on Gas Technology, Equipment and Applications in 2007.

Environmental consequences of the production of hydrogen from energy resources include the emission of greenhouse gases, a consequence that would also result from the on-board reforming of methanol into hydrogen. Studies comparing the environmental consequences of hydrogen production and use in fuel-cell vehicles to the refining of petroleum and combustion in conventional automobile engines find a net reduction of ozone and greenhouse gases in favor of hydrogen.[40] Hydrogen production using renewable energy resources would not create such emissions or, in the case of biomass, would create near-zero net emissions assuming new biomass is grown in place of that converted to hydrogen. However the same land could be used to create Biodiesel, usable with (at most) minor alterations to existing well developed and relatively efficient diesel engines. In either case, the scale of renewable energy production today is small and would need to be greatly expanded to be used in producing hydrogen for a significant part of transportation needs. As of December 2008, less than 3 percent of U.S. electricity was produced from renewable sources, not including dams.[51] In a few countries, renewable sources are being used more widely to produce energy and hydrogen. For example, Iceland is using geothermal power to produce hydrogen, and Denmark is using wind

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written by AussieArtist, July 23, 2010

Pearl Hydrogen Power Sources of Shanghai, China, unveiled a hydrogen bicycle at the 9th China Internation

Wikipedia states: The molecular hydrogen needed as an on-board fuel for hydrogen vehicles can be obtained through many thermochemical methods utilizing natural gas, coal (by a process known as coal gasification), liquefied petroleum gas, biomass (biomass gasification), by a process called thermolysis, or as a microbial waste product called biohydrogen or Biological hydrogen production. 95% of hydrogen is produced using natural gas,[47] and 85% of hydrogen produced is used to remove sulfur from gasoline. Hydrogen can also be produced from water by electrolysis or by chemical reduction using chemical hydrides or aluminum.[48] Current technologies for manufacturing hydrogen use energy in various forms, totaling between 25 and 50 percent of the higher heating value of the hydrogen fuel, used to produce, compress or liquefy, and transmit the hydrogen by pipeline or truckal Exhibition on Gas Technology, Equipment and Applications in 2007.

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written by George Brown, July 30, 2010

Surely the best source of H2 is H2O, which is very plentiful in coastal regions and extremely wet and/or cold climates. Using simple fuel cell processes the H2 can be separated (freeing excess O2 for the planet)and transported by binding with Mg and then desorbed for reaction in a fuel cell OR H2 vehicle. It is well known that H2O is an important greenhouse gas, but one which will have less overall effect on O2 utilisation.

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written by khara, August 10, 2010

Very nice, i like