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Hydrogen and hydrates

Nature volume 434, pages 712–713 (2005)Cite this article

It's a potentially explosive issue. How can hydrogen be stored cleanly, efficiently and, above all, safely? One answer would appear to be: take a cage made of water, and add just a little organic solvent.

Finding cheap and easy storage methods will be crucial to establishing hydrogen as a fuel of the future. Clathrates — in which hydrogen molecules are encapsulated or ‘occluded’ in a cage-like lattice of water molecules — are one option, but until now the pressure required to maintain the stability of such systems has been too high. Lee et al., writing on page 743 of this issue1, now report that adding small amounts of the common solvent tetrahydrofuran (THF) can substantially reduce this pressure, possibly making a system consisting of hydrogen and water feasible for storage.

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Figure 1: Clathrate storage capacity.

References

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  1. Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung, Mülheim an der Ruhr, 45470, Germany

    Ferdi Schüth

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  1. Ferdi Schüth
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Schüth, F. Hydrogen and hydrates. Nature 434, 712–713 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/434712a

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