Enhancing International Cooperation in running FP6 Hydrogen Solid Storage activities (HySIC)

NESSHY is the only running FP6 IP dedicated to medium to long term R&D on hydrogen storage in solids. It is widely recognised that H2 storage is one of the major technical barriers to H2 and fuel cell deployment. The NESSHY consortium has committed itself to deepen collaboration with the IPHE framework and NESSHY will soon be proposed to become a project associated with IPHE. In compliance with the FP6-2005-Energy-4 Call workprogramme, the basic objective of this SSA proposal is to facilitate and enhance significantly international cooperation (in the framework of IPHE) on hydrogen solid storage through the running FP6 IP NESSHY.

To achieve this, HySIC aims at supporting and promoting the execution of innovative R&D actions that clearly complement the workplan of NESSHY. These actions refer to sample preparation and characterization, benchmarking and standardisation of test protocols, round robin testing of specific samples, comparison and cross validation of theoretical simulations and experimental results. HySIC also foresees a number of joint dissemination actions in close interaction to corresponding NESSHY training and dissemination activities.

This SSA does not fund the research itself (the costs of which will be considerably higher than the proposed HySIC budget). It catalyses and enhances the international cooperation in the frame of NESSHY by facilitating the exchange of samples and individual meetings and promoting relevant studies between current NESSHY partners (coordinator and workpackage leaders), a partner from a new EU member state (Lithuania) and three organisations from IPHE members (China, Russia). It is important to stress that HySIC will benefit substantially from the extended NESSHY infrastructure in terms of management, organisation of workshops, etc. Indeed, without this interaction and mutual support, the ambitious goals of this SSA would not be realised within the proposed reasonable budget and effort.

The objectives of HySIC project was mainly related to sample preparation and exchange among HySIC partners for round-robin testing that involves structural, thermodynamic and kinetic characterization using various methods including micro-gravimetric techniques, electrochemical measurements and neutron scattering.

During the HySIC project Lithuanian Energy Institute in close collaboration with Stockholm University (Prof. D. Noreus) and NESSHY partner JRC Institute for Energy (Dr. C. Filiou) investigated if the stability of thin film samples of Mg₂NiH₄ could be modified by introducing defects and impurities, moreover, we wanted to see if it can used in a switchable mirror or window device by utilizing the high to low temperature transition at about 510 K. The new thin film Mg₂NiH₄ samples were produced by reacting hydrogen with magnetron sputtered Mg₂Ni films on quartz glass or CaF₂ substrates.