Metal Hydrides as Hydrogen Storage Media and Their Applications

This chapter aims: to acquaint the reader with the more salient and pertinent aspects of metal hydride chemistry and to delineate the properties of several individual metal-hydrogen systems of interest and discuss their applications, particularly as energy storage media. Metal hydride compounds may be divided into three general categories: saline or ionic, metallic, and covalent. The reaction is reversible, and its direction depends on the hydrogen pressure in the system. The reaction of hydrogen with LaNi5 is extremely rapid and has been the subject of several studies. The products of the reactions are gray metal-like solids with essentially the same appearance as the initial alloy. The storage of electrical energy through the production, storage, and reconversion of hydrogen is of interest as a load leveling technique for electric utilities. In view of the above argument, a multifuel passenger automobile having almost the same weight, performance, and range as the conventional gasoline-powered vehicle was proposed.