14 DAY TRIAL // The US Department of Energy (DOE), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and General Motors (GM) have just set aside $2.1 million for a three-year grant destined to researchers investigating how to create a fuel cell capable of powering a car for 300 miles on a single charge.
Storing large amounts of hydrogen inside a full cell is the main challenge researchers need to address. They have been trying to do so for many years, but thus far efforts have largely failed, on account of the fact that materials science is not yet sufficiently advanced to keep up.
What the DOE, especially, wants to obtain is to have cars drive for up to 300 miles (483 kilometers) on a single charge, using fuel cells that are both safe and cheap to purchase. In order for that to happen, a lot of innovations need to come together.
This is why experts decided to select a team of physicists at the DOE Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) for the job. The group has extensive experience working with fuel cells, since the lab is already responsible for developing several advanced fuel cell prototypes.
“We’re working on materials called metal-organic frameworks to increase the capacity of hydrogen gas in a pressure cylinder, which would be the fuel tank,” Berkeley Lab researcher Jeffrey Long explains.
“With these materials, we’re working on storing the hydrogen without the use of very high pressures, which will be safer and also more efficient without the significant compression energy losses,” he adds.
The expert is one of the co-leaders of the new investigation, alongside colleague and Berkeley Lab chemist Martin Head-Gordon. The team explains that MOF are generally made out of carbon, and have the appearance of 3D sponge-like framework structures.
The main issue researchers need to figure out right now is how to get more than one hydrogen atom to hook up with the MOF. The material's soaking and storage capabilities are amazing as they are, but they could be improved even further.
“What’s very special about these materials is that you can use synthetic chemistry to modify the surfaces within the materials and make it attractive for hydrogen to stick on the surface,” Long says.