GSI Seminar - Pores for thought: Engineering Composites for Hydrogen Energy

The energy crisis and environmental pollution are highlighted to be major global problems in the 21^st century. The latest research is clear: to avoid the worst climate impacts, and global greenhouse gas emissions will need to drop by half by 2030, then reach net-zero by 2050. The UK became the first major economy to pass net zero emissions law in 2019. We will have to utilise all the techniques to achieve it, which means using a huge range of new and novel energy innovation and technologies.

Clearly, this is an important time for hydrogen, which will have a crucial role in achieving Net Zero by 2050 in the UK and international decarbonising targets. Hydrogen has long been hailed as an alternative to fossil fuels, but it is also an excellent means of storing renewable energy from solar or wind sources. One of the challenges of storing hydrogen is its low density, meaning that large volumes are required to store efficient amounts of hydrogen to be able to use it as a fuel.  Nanoporous materials (materials with internal pore diameters on the angstrom or nanometre length scale) can adsorb large quantities of gases owing to the increased density of the gas inside the pores. Hydrogen stored in solid materials offers far more compact onboard storage capacity, reducing operating pressures and improving safety. This talk will provide an overview of the hydrogen economy, and recent research, describing how we have approached the development of such nanoporous materials to meet challenges such as the safe and efficient storage of hydrogen energy. 

A Zoom link will be sent out prior to the webinar. If you are not on the GSI mailing list please contact infoGSI@exeter.ac.uk to receive more information