The current available hydrogen storage methods have their limitations. The compressed gas storage and metal hydride storage systems have relatively low energy densities, and the liquefied gas storage requires costly cryogenics. The hybrid carbon adsorption storage techniques have not lived up to their projected potential partly due to low hydrogen adsorption capacities of activated carbons. In the exploratory experiments conducted at MER, at the first time, to the best of their knowledge, they have successfully hydrogenated fullerene mixtures up to 5.5% by weight of hydrogen using physical method. The hydrogenated fullerenes -- fullerene hydrides are stable at ambient conditions and release hydrogen gas at elevated temperatures. Also, MER has converted fullerene mixtures into some kind of carbon (they call it super carbon) which has much larger hydrogen storage capacity than conventional high surface area activated carbons. In this proposal, the feasibility of using the fullerene-hydrides or fullerene converted super carbons as materials for hydrogen storage will be studied. In this work, the best procedures to physically hydrogenate fullerenes, and the best procedures to convert fullerenes into super carbons will be researched. The dehydrogenation (degas) properties of fullerene-hydride, and hydrogen adsorption-desorption properties of super carbons will be studied. And the economic and performance comparisons of the new hydrogen storage methods with other hydrogen storage methods will be made.
