Metal hydrides for hydrogen storage – Identification and evaluation of stationary and transportation applications

Hydrogen is becoming increasingly important to achieve the valid defossilization goals. However, due to its physical properties, especially the storage of hydrogen is challenging. One option in this regard are metal hydrides, which are able to store hydrogen in chemically material-bound form. Against this background, the goal of this paper is an analysis of possible technical application areas of such metal hydrides – both regarding transport and stationary application. These various options are assessed for metal hydrides as well as selected competing hydrogen storage options. The investigation shows that metal hydrides with a temperature range below 100 °C (e.g., TiFe) are of interest particularly for transportation applications; possible areas of application include rail and marine transportation, as well as selected non-road vehicles. For stationary applications, metal hydrides can be used on low and high temperature levels. Here, metal hydrides with operating temperatures below 100 °C are particularly useful for selected small-scale applications (e.g., home storage systems). For applications with medium storage capacities (100 kWh to 100 MWh), metal hydrides with higher temperature levels are also conceivable (e.g., NaAlH4). For even higher storage demands metal hydrides are less promising.