3 ms·

Not an expert but from what scanty technical detail is presented in the article, it sounds like they're using: * metal hydride to store hydrogen. * a reversib

by rgmerk 3y ago

Not an expert but from what scanty technical detail is presented in the article, it sounds like they're using: * metal hydride to store hydrogen. * a reversible fuel cell that can either split water to extract the hydrogen, or combine the hydrogen with oxygen from the air to make electricity * using the "waste" heat as space/water heating (this is another variation of "combined heat and power" and is pretty widely deployed, though perhaps not with fuel cells). There's been talk about using metal hydrides for hydrogen storage for many decades, and they appear to be commercially available [1]. That said, none of the discussion of hydrogen bulk storage at commercial scale seems to be talking about hydrides - it seems more to be about underground caverns just like natural gas, or tanks if you don't have a handy underground cavern. Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles all seem to be using cryogenic tanks. If this company has an approach that can lead to anything approximating seasonal storage in a home-friendly form factor at anything approximating a reasonable cost (and that reasonable cost could be pretty high given the functionality), the world will beat a path to their door. [1] https://www.h2planet.eu/en/detail/MyH2300 https://www.h2planet.eu/en/detail/MyH2300

XorNot 3y ago
There's at least one company in the market in Australia with a metal hydride absorber system[1], and it's still nowhere near cost effective for household usage (or really any usage IMO: I can't figure out where this would fit where batteries or something much larger like Vanadium or Iron-flow would not). CHP is also, IMO, cheating since the retrofits to take advantage of the waste heat aren't simple or non-invasive - i.e. theoretically CHP could power hot water and air conditioning for me via heat pumps, but in practice doing any of that residentially is prohibitively expensive. [1] https://www.lavo.com.au/lavo-hydrogen/ https://www.lavo.com.au/lavo-hydrogen/
- flgb 3y ago
  Although interestingly LAVO is 'pivoting' .. https://www.pv-magazine-australia.com/2023/11/02/lavo-pivots-to-new-model-offering-households-renewable-ecosystems-via-subscription-at-no-upfront-cost/ https://www.pv-magazine-australia.com/2023/11/02/lavo-pivots...
- Maxion 3y ago
  > CHP is also, IMO, cheating since the retrofits to take advantage of the waste heat aren't simple or non-invasive - i.e. theoretically CHP could power hot water and air conditioning for me via heat pumps, but in practice doing any of that residentially is prohibitively expensive. CHP is widely used in Scandinavia at least, not to mention almost all new houses here are built with water borne in-floor heating as it is much more efficient (lower circulation temperature due to more surface area for heat dissipation).
s1artibartfast 3y ago
There is also Enervenue, which manufactures nickel-hydride batteries. They received 100M funding from the Saudis in 2021, and currently have a backorder for 7GWh of batteries. https://enervenue.com/ https://enervenue.com/
PinguTS 3y ago
Just last week I was listening to a German podcast on battery technology. There is a German company also working on this. It pretty much sounds like a Zinc-Air battery[1]. It is a metal. It produces hydrogen and electrical energy while discharging. It holds up energy for some time after charging. It can be fully discharged without negative effects like all the existing technologies. So it seems, that there are a number of companies working on this promising technology. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinc%E2%80%93air_battery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinc%E2%80%93air_battery
- littlelady 3y ago
  Could you share the name of the podcast?
  - PinguTS 3y ago
    The podcast is called "Geladen" and is in German language: https://geladen.podigee.io/ https://geladen.podigee.io/
    - littlelady 3y ago
      Danke sehr!
tim333 3y ago
I followed a UK company for a while that was doing power from fuel cells absorbing the hydrogen with a metal catalyst. It all sounded good and they had an iphone recharger and drone battery and I was wondering why the products weren't out there. It turned out the cost was like £160 for a phone charger and £1000 for a drone battery and not many were prepared to pay that when Li ion stuff is like 10x cheaper. I think they went bust in the end.

by rgmerk 3y ago

XorNot 3y ago

There's at least one company in the market in Australia with a metal hydride absorber system[1], and it's still nowhere near cost effective for household usage (or really any usage IMO: I can't figure out where this would fit where batteries or something much larger like Vanadium or Iron-flow would not). CHP is also, IMO, cheating since the retrofits to take advantage of the waste heat aren't simple or non-invasive - i.e. theoretically CHP could power hot water and air conditioning for me via heat pumps, but in practice doing any of that residentially is prohibitively expensive. [1] https://www.lavo.com.au/lavo-hydrogen/ https://www.lavo.com.au/lavo-hydrogen/

flgb 3y ago
Although interestingly LAVO is 'pivoting' .. https://www.pv-magazine-australia.com/2023/11/02/lavo-pivots-to-new-model-offering-households-renewable-ecosystems-via-subscription-at-no-upfront-cost/ https://www.pv-magazine-australia.com/2023/11/02/lavo-pivots...
Maxion 3y ago
> CHP is also, IMO, cheating since the retrofits to take advantage of the waste heat aren't simple or non-invasive - i.e. theoretically CHP could power hot water and air conditioning for me via heat pumps, but in practice doing any of that residentially is prohibitively expensive. CHP is widely used in Scandinavia at least, not to mention almost all new houses here are built with water borne in-floor heating as it is much more efficient (lower circulation temperature due to more surface area for heat dissipation).

s1artibartfast 3y ago

There is also Enervenue, which manufactures nickel-hydride batteries. They received 100M funding from the Saudis in 2021, and currently have a backorder for 7GWh of batteries. https://enervenue.com/ https://enervenue.com/

PinguTS 3y ago

Just last week I was listening to a German podcast on battery technology. There is a German company also working on this. It pretty much sounds like a Zinc-Air battery[1]. It is a metal. It produces hydrogen and electrical energy while discharging. It holds up energy for some time after charging. It can be fully discharged without negative effects like all the existing technologies. So it seems, that there are a number of companies working on this promising technology. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinc%E2%80%93air_battery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinc%E2%80%93air_battery

littlelady 3y ago
Could you share the name of the podcast?
- PinguTS 3y ago
  The podcast is called "Geladen" and is in German language: https://geladen.podigee.io/ https://geladen.podigee.io/
  - littlelady 3y ago
    Danke sehr!

tim333 3y ago

I followed a UK company for a while that was doing power from fuel cells absorbing the hydrogen with a metal catalyst. It all sounded good and they had an iphone recharger and drone battery and I was wondering why the products weren't out there. It turned out the cost was like £160 for a phone charger and £1000 for a drone battery and not many were prepared to pay that when Li ion stuff is like 10x cheaper. I think they went bust in the end.