Technology From Soviet Space Program May Solve Key Problem for Hydrogen Cars

Technology From Soviet Space Program May Solve Key Problem for Hydrogen Cars

By Scott Doggett December 15, 2009

One of the biggest challenges facing automakers with regard to hydrogen vehicles is how to store the volatile gas.

Israeli entrepreneur Moshe Stern - with help from Russian scientist Evgeny Velikhov - believes he has overcome the challenge.

What's more, the hydrogen storage technology being developed by Stern's Swiss-based startup, C.En, has just been endorsed for its safety by a top German institute, according to an article in the current edition of Business Week.

"The lightweight storage and safety factors give the technology a huge commercial potential for a whole range of industries," Kai Holtappels, who heads up the working group at the institute that has been testing the technology since February 2008, told the magazine.

A team of scientists first invented the storage technology at Moscow's Kurchatov Institute for use in the Soviet space program. Stern thinks his system can be adopted by the electronics industry to replace conventional batteries in portable devices such as laptops and mobile phones.
 
He and C.En's chief scientist, Dan Eliezer, already have begun meeting with potential corporate customers.

"We're planning to license out the technology on a company-by-company basis, with the first agreement during 2010," Stern told Business Week.

Hydrogen-powered vehicles have long been explored as a means to reduce pollution and curb Western dependence on imported oil.
 
The challenges of using hydrogen, though, have always been the size and weight of the containers needed to store the highly explosive gas safely. C.En claims to have overcome the problem with its leakproof capillary arrays (pictured).

"Glass has proven to have three times the storage capacity at only a third of the weight of steel containers that are now commonly used for hydrogen storage, and it's far cheaper," Eliezer said.

Outside experts are impressed at the potential, but are taking a wait-and-see attitude. "If C.En's capillaries can withstand the external pressure, the technology could be practical in vehicles and electrical devices," says Yoel Sasson, a professor of applied chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who notes that another critical factor will be the cost of producing the capillary arrays.

Over the last two years, C.En has raised $25 million from investors in Israel, the U.S., Russia, South Korea, Japan and most recently from Italian insurance giant Assicurazioni Generali -- all of whom are betting that Stern can turn Velikhov's original idea into a winner.

Solving the storage problem doesn't, of course, solve the other major issue facing hydrogen - that being how users will obtain cheap sources of hydrogen - but other companies are working on it.

They include: Germany's Linde, which recently revealed that it had developed a process for sustainable production of hydrogen from glycerin, a by-product of biodiesel refining; and California's  Bloom Energy, which is working on fuel cells that can create hydrogen from water and solar energy.

Scott Doggett:  is an AutoObserver.com Associate Editor.