Hydrogen Paste Fuel With Similar Range as Gasoline

Another advancement on the hydrogen fuel front. A team at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM in Germany has developed a hydrogen paste they call POWERPASTE. It's a magnesium based substance allowing hydrogen to be stored in chemical form at room temperature.

It seems like it's cartridge based, so refueling would be a matter of swapping out a cartridge and refilling a tank with water.

According to the team, this new technology has a storage density of about ten times standard batteries and the same range as gasoline. Details seem a bit sparse on that, but it sounds promising.


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A team at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM in Germany has now developed a hydrogen paste, POWERPASTE, that may be easier to use especially in smaller vehicles.

the substance created from magnesium base and stored in the vehicle in the form of a cartridge.

All drivers need to do to refuel is swap out the old cartridge for a new one and fill a tank with water.

POWERPASTE stores hydrogen in a chemical form at room temperature and atmospheric pressure to be then released on demand

POWERPASTE... has a huge energy storage density," said Vogt. "It is substantially higher than that of a 700 bar high-pressure tank. And compared to batteries, it has ten times the energy storage density."

The researchers also pointed out that the range of the paste can be compared with gasoline and may even exceed it.

They suggested that this could make it a viable option for cars or in portable fuel cells on camping trips, and could significantly extend the possibilities of drone usage.

a reply to: dug88

Magnesium hydride is great and all, but why wont the government let us use aluminium hydride which works even better?

Asking for a friend.

a reply to: dug88

I'm waiting for them to come by and tell you why it will never work. Don't worry, they will be here soon.

a reply to: Stevenmonet

I dunno, maybe using magnesium means they can patent it?

a reply to: dug88

It's a big claim to say this paste has a higher energy density than a 700 bar hydrogen tank.
700 bar is over 10k psi.

a reply to: Bluntone22

Yeah, without more details, their claims do seem a bit over the top, but, it could be revolutionary if their claims are true.

The big problem with new batteries is going to be the chicken and the egg problem. You'll need to make the cars that use the battery and secondly build the infrastructure to supply the batteries and then recycle the waste/used batteries.

Also it looks like there could be a number of usable technologies coming out in the 2020s. And then there will be a lot of Betamax and video disk technologies eventually falling to the VHS that wins out. And that will probably fall to the CD and then the Blue ray disks technologies of the 2030s and 40s.

But as of now battery technology is probably at the level of 1960s Ampex video recorders. It's got a long way to go.

originally posted by: dug88
The researchers also pointed out that the range of the paste can be compared with gasoline and may even exceed it.

They suggested that this could make it a viable option for cars or in portable fuel cells on camping trips, and could significantly extend the possibilities of drone usage.

Interestingly enough... I was just reading a similar article but it involved "PowerPaste" with E-Scooters and their claim that it could be 10X that of Lithium Batteries.

Fraunhofer suggests e-scooters as application for its magnesium hydride paste hydrogen storage technology



o create POWERPASTE, magnesium powder is combined with hydrogen to form magnesium hydride in a process conducted at 350 °C and five to six times atmospheric pressure. An ester and a metal salt are then added in order to form the finished product.

Onboard the vehicle, the POWERPASTE is released from a cartridge by means of a plunger. When water is added from an onboard tank, the ensuing reaction generates hydrogen gas in a quantity dynamically adjusted to the actual requirements of the fuel cell. Only half of the hydrogen originates from the POWERPASTE; the rest comes from the added water.

Unlike gaseous hydrogen, POWERPASTE does not require a costly infrastructure. This makes it suited for areas lacking such an infrastructure. In places where there are no hydrogen stations, regular filling stations could sell POWERPASTE in cartridges or canisters instead. The paste is fluid and pumpable. It can therefore be supplied by a standard filling line, using relatively inexpensive equipment.

**Johnny**

I personally find this very exciting and am reminded of when as a child (maybe 9 years old), my Father (A petrol filling Station owner and mechanic) would visit a scientist/engineer and we would go in his garage and he'd pull this canvas sheet off the worktable revealing some mechanical contraption. Dad would get all excited and almost 'giddy' while this guy would explain aspects of it (I didn't pay much attention, I was just a uninterested boy).

The guy would get some water pour it into the engine and start it up and it was running off water. Dad always shook his head when it started as we were trained/taught to believe that water couldn't do this. But here it was.. running a motor-engine.

Several months went by and Dad and I went to visit the guy several times but there was no answer at his door. ABout three months transpired and Pop and I finally caught up with the guy and he was moving away. He told Dad that he sold the engine and the designs/instructions to a petroleum Company. He wouldn't divulge who bought it and also said that sharing that information was part of the agreement to never speak or create another one. He supposedly got a million dollars for it, this was back in the mid 60's and THAT was a lot of money back then. Dad was sort of crushed by his moving away and I could tell he wanted to ask about a billion questions... but he honored the guy's wishes.

That story doesn't really have much to do with POWERPASTE (perse'), but it's a clear indication that there was innovations being sought out after in the alternative fuel department.

Johnny

a reply to: Bluntone22

The hydrogen binds to the magnesium and is then released with watter. You can do better with aluminum hydride and heat.

All hydrocarbons are is hydrogen bound to carbon.

The energy density comes from the carbon being able to hold more H's per atom.

Oxygen can hold 2 and we call that watter.

Magnesium can hold quite a few more than carbon so it is more energy dense then hydrocarbons.

How they produce the hydrogen to bind to the magnesium? They could use electrolysis and solar. Or electrolysis and a heat dif ovens..it goes on and on.

They could do all sorts of fun stuff.

And unlike unbound hydrogen you could shoot it with an incendiary round and instead of leveling the block it would sit there and smolder like a cigarette.

Cant have a bunch of hindenburgs every time there is a car accident. Had they considered the safety implications of huge stacks of lipo's maybe musk wouldn't have gotten this far.

Rules for thee and so forth.

I live in the U.P of Michigan, water freezes around here, can they put antifreeze in the water? I made the mistake of buying the washer fluid that wasn't twenty below and coming into winter with the fluid that froze a few time, now I just buy the fluid that is twenty below. Two washer pumps, and a couple of the special order squirters near the wipers later and I finally learned.

Sounds like time for another new start-up. Rather than Tesla or Nikola it could be called Hindenburg.

a reply to: Stevenmonet

Hydrogen likes to go boom.
It also is very sticky and loves the company of other atoms.

Unfortunately with current methods, extraction of hydrogen uses more energy than you get from the hydrogen.

I’m not convinced this method will ever be cost effective.

originally posted by: schuyler
Sounds like time for another new start-up. Rather than Tesla or Nikola it could be called Hindenburg.

On I-75 here , about 2 megatons.

a reply to: dug88

So, all things considered then, climate crisis and all that, this tech should be getting fast tracked much like the covid vaccines right? I mean it's going to be better for the environment and likely far more affordable for people right?

/naivety

a reply to: Bluntone22

I have been told the same many times. Let's just say I have become less convinced of the accuracy of that statement over time to the point of now calling it an outright lie.

It was a 2 decade journey of faith and re-discovery.

You either take them at their word or you start playing arround with electrolysis and hho and find out for yourself.

I have been in the find out for myself stage for a while here. I call them outright liars every day, but the moment I prove it to the world I would get offed.

I will leave it for others to prove while I enjoy the fruits of my own labours in reletavie silent obscurity.

Some day I may be so brave as to give those who care access to all my data here on ats, but I have become convinced the moment one tries to pattent it or profit from the sale of it they meet an unfortunate end.

There is nothing new under the sun.