University researchers and the EADS Innovation Works, part of the EADS Group, an aerospace and defense corporation comprised of Airbus, Astrium, Eurocopter and Cassidian, are working together to find a new solid state storage system for hydrogen, in the hopes that such technology will make it possible to use hydrogen as a clean alternative to traditional hydrocarbon-based fuels in airplanes and car engines. Hydrogen is a clean fuel that produces only water on combustion, but can be expensive and difficult to store safely. These challenges have prevented the use of hydrogen on an industrial scale in fuel cells. Chemists at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, and EADS are using nanotechnology to alter the design and material composition of a storage tank in an effort to make it so efficient that it will be feasible to use solid state hydrogen for airplanes and car engines. EADS is planning to fly an unmanned hydrogen-powered test plane in 2014, if developments to the tank structure are successful. According to Dr.-Ing. Agata Godula-Jopek, Fuel Cells Expert in the EADS Power Generation Team, “Replacing traditional hydrocarbon-based fuels with pollution-free hydrogen in aeroplane and car engines would deliver huge benefits to the environment because carbon emissions would be dramatically reduced.” The article can be viewed online at the link below.
http://www.eads.com/eads/int/en/news/press.43c695a3-6089-4854-8fea-f5faf5adbaf1.70472f39-dd6f-4428-a792-91d82cb9791b.html