.gif) |
NUS team may have key to drive hydrogen
economy
It is working on storing hydrogen in a
solid medium - lithium nitride; the method is safer and more
cost-effective than others
By Christopher
Tan
IN A makeshift laboratory in the National University of
Singapore (NUS), a team led by a young researcher is working
on what could well become the Microsoft of the so-called
hydrogen economy.
Dr Chen Ping, a 36-year-old chemist from China's Shandong
province, is spearheading research into storing hydrogen in a
solid medium, lithium nitride, and releasing it on demand -
like electricity from a battery.
The conventional ways of keeping the gas, seen as the
answer to the world's need for a fuel that will not pollute,
are to either compress it or turn it into a liquid by freezing
it.
The new method, if perfected, will address the cost and
safety issues associated with the other two.
'Compressing hydrogen uses up a lot of energy,' Dr Chen
said. 'And for a hydrogen car to cover 480km, which is the
United States Department of Energy's benchmark, you need a
tank that can take 700 times the atmospheric
pressure.'
The high cost aside, she reckons the public may not readily
accept being in a vehicle with a tank holding hydrogen at over
4,500kg per square inch, even if such a tank is proven to be
safe.
Her group, whose main laboratory is undergoing renovation,
is working towards a solution for cars, and is in the process
of tying up a research alliance with General Motors, the
world's largest carmaker.
Working with lithium nitride, Dr Chen's team - funded by
the Government's Agency for Science, Technology and Research
(A*Star) - has been able to surpass the US Department of
Energy's 2005 target of 0.45kg of gas stored in a 10kg
medium.
'Ours is so far the highest, at 1.14kg,' she claimed.
Her team is now working on lowering the temperature and
pressure at which the gas can be released, as well as
increasing the number of times the medium can be refuelled
before it has to be replaced.
The tests hinge on the discovery of new synthesised
materials which hydrogen can bond with.
'Two years ago, our working temperature was 250 deg C.
Today, it's below 200 deg C. We need to get it to below 100
deg C,' she said.
The research team has filed six patents for its relatively
new technology, and its work has been featured in leading
science journals like Nature and Technology Research News.
Dr Chen literally stumbled upon how hydrogen can be bonded
to solids six years ago, soon after joining NUS after
graduating from Xiamen University with a
doctorate.
She was working on nano materials when she found that
lithium reacted with hydrogen at high temperatures.
In 2001, that accidental discovery was repeated and
verified.
'We achieved a storage capacity almost twice that of the
best existing solid-state hydrogen storage material,' she
recounted with excitement. 'We submitted the results to
Nature. To our delight, they published it in their November
2002 issue.'
Her pioneering work soon won her global recognition, and
she has been invited to address the major carmakers as well as
government agencies and universities in Japan.
She was also invited to visit California-based Sandia
National Laboratories - a leading state defence technology
provider - and worked there as a guest consultant in May and
June this year.
Now the US Department of Energy wants her to join its
Annual Review Meeting of Hydrogen Project.
Her team is currently the leader in this field of research,
but soaring oil prices and a foreseeable energy crunch have
prompted researchers elsewhere to join the
race.
The American government, for instance, is spending US$1.7
billion (S$2.9 billion) over five years on research into
hydrogen-based fuel cells.
'It's very competitive. We feel quite a lot of pressure,'
Dr Chen confessed, even as she said she is almost sure her
team can come up with a solution ready for real-life tests
before her latest A*Star sponsorship period runs out in late
2006.
She believes that once hydrogen can be stored in a solid
medium, interest in cars that run on the gas will increase,
and reckons it will be only a matter of time before hydrogen
replaces fossil fuels as the world's primary energy source.
'My hometown is where the Shenli Petroleum Administration
is. It controls China's second largest oilfield. With each
passing year, it gets harder and harder for them to get oil
out from the ground,' she added.
SURPRISE
DR CHEN Ping, 36, literally stumbled upon how hydrogen can
be bonded to solids six years ago, soon after joining NUS
after graduating from Xiamen University with a
doctorate.
She was working on nano materials when she found that
lithium reacted with hydrogen at high temperatures.
In 2001, that accidental discovery was repeated and
verified. 'We achieved a storage capacity almost twice that of
the best existing solid-state hydrogen storage material,' she
said. |
.gif) |