Researchers at ETH Zurich are using iron to store hydrogen safely and for long periods. In the future, this technology could be used for seasonal energy storage.
  • Hirom@beehaw.org
    4·
    4 months ago

    Thanks for sharing.

    Are there more details available on roundtrip efficiency? I doubt this can compete against pumped hydro, given it has a very high efficiency. But that might be useful in situations where it’s not possible to use more efficient options.

    • Hamartiogonic
      2·
      3 months ago

      If the system works and makes financial sense, then it could help with energy storage, which would be awesome.

      The material appears to be cheap, but obviously you would need a lot of it. Storing meaningful amounts of hydrogen in anything other than a high pressure tank takes ridiculous amounts of space.

      If this technology was applied at an industrial scale - and you should - a storage facility could be as large as an open pit mine. Large scale production of renewable energy already requires plenty of space, so many such facilities are already located in remote places. If you also add energy storage to the plan, you’ll just need even more space than initially expected, but that shouldn’t be a problem, right? I mean, you’re already building in the middle of nowhere, so there’s plenty of space.