Los Alamos part of new Center for Chemical Hydrogen Storage

Contact: Todd Hanson, tahanson@lanl.gov, (505) 665-2085 (04-037)

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LOS ALAMOS, N.M., April 27, 2004 -- University of California scientists working at Los Alamos National Laboratory have joined with scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to create a new national Center for Chemical Hydrogen Storage. The new center is a step toward the development of a "hydrogen economy" -- an economy based not on the fossil fuels we use today, but on clean, abundant hydrogen fuels.

According to Thomas J. Meyer, Associate Director for Strategic Research at Los Alamos, "Hydrogen storage has been a key technical barrier to developing a hydrogen economy in the United States. This new partnership will bring together expert researchers from the Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratories, with industry and academia experts to develop the science and technology needed to enable chemical hydrogen storage."

Selected as part of a merit-reviewed, competitive process, the Center for Chemical Hydrogen Storage is one of several principal projects in the United States announced today by the Department of Energy aimed at making the hydrogen economy a reality. The $150 million DOE National Hydrogen Storage Project will run for five years and involve more then 30 organizations and partners.

The LANL/PNNL-led center will use a three-tiered approach to investigate the use of chemical hydrogen compounds for releasing hydrogen spontaneously and controllably at suitable pressures and temperatures, and in amounts consistent with the targeted hydrogen storage capacity.

The partners will work in parallel to improve current technologies and to develop entirely new chemical storage concepts.

LANL and PNNL have assembled some of the best academic scientists in the world in chemistry, electrochemistry, and catalysis, along with key companies with experience and expertise, to bring together a diverse set of capabilities in science and engineering. These include world expert chemists from the Pennsylvania State University, University of Alabama, University of California at Davis, the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Washington; fuel cell experts from Millennium Cell, and Intematix; and chemical industry leaders US Borax and Rohm and Haas, who will provide vital manufacturing, engineering and assessment capabilities. LANL and PNNL bring expertise in theory, modeling, experimentation and engineering to the mix.

The Center will be a virtual one, meaning that research will take place in existing government, university and industry facilities, but will be supported and bound together by the collaboration. The center will be led by William Tumas of Los Alamos' Actinide, Catalysis and Separations Chemistry Group.

Los Alamos National Laboratory is operated by the University of California for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) of the U.S. Department of Energy and works in partnership with NNSA's Sandia and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories to support NNSA in its mission.

Los Alamos enhances global security by ensuring safety and confidence in the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction and improving the environmental and nuclear materials legacy of the cold war. Los Alamos' capabilities assist the nation in addressing energy, environment, infrastructure and biological security problems.