Storing hydrogen is currently cost prohibitive on a large scale.

Specifically, the COSY network, Complex Solid State Reactions for Energy Efficient Hydrogen Storage, aims to develop types of reactive light-metal hydride composites that can be used for more effective hydrogen storage. They are focusing their research on storage systems for mobile applications, such as your car, laptop or camera. Current systems are still too bulky and cumbersome to be economically viable.

“Light-metal hydrides are solid materials that chemically bind hydrogen atoms and release them again when heated,” explains Professor Rüdiger Bormann, Director of the Institute for Materials Research at GKSS-Forschungszentrum Geesthacht and coordinator of COSY. “The ‘reactive hydride composites’ discovered by the scientists at GKSS-Forschungszentrum Geesthacht will allow us to significantly increase the storage density. By storing hydrogen in solids, we can avoid a number of material- and safety-related technological difficulties, such as those encountered during high-pressure storage of gaseous hydrogen or the storage of liquid hydrogen at low temperatures.”

Some of the main research stages of COSY will include the production of metal hydride composites, their characterisation with respect to the relevant application properties, e.g. hydrogen sorption kinetics and thermodynamics, the influence of additives as well as of the microstructure, and ab initio calculations of stable and hypothetical structures.

Hydrogen is known as an energy transfer medium, not an energy source, which means that it needs additional energy to make it exploitable. The compression and refrigeration required for storage are examples of the extra energy required for large scale hydrogen use. COSY will study ways to improve storage systems improving their marketability.

COSY is funded as part of the Marie Curie Research Training Network programme, which emphasises the training upcoming scientists. One of its main goals will be to provide hands-on experience to ‘early stage researchers.’ As such, they are offering PhD and post-doc positions for researchers specifically interested in the development of nanocrystalline light-metal hydride composites.

COSY is a four-year long project consisting of 13 members from Germany, France, the UK, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Spain. It will receive a total of €2.5 million from DG Research.