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Sandia designs hydrogen storage system for GM

Sandia engineer Terry Johnson surveys various components of the hydrogen storage system he and his team designed for General Motors. The material used to store the hydrogen – sodium alanate – resides within the tubes. (Photo by Randy Wong)

Sandia engineer Terry Johnson

surveys various components of

the hydrogen storage system he

and his team designed for General

Motors. The material used to store

the hydrogen – sodium alanate

– resides within the tubes.

(Photo by Randy Wong)

Researchers at DOE's Sandia National Laboratories have successfully designed and demonstrated key features of a hydrogen storage system through a multiyear project funded by General Motors Corp. The system, which uses a complex metal hydride material known as sodium alanate, stores 3 kilograms of hydrogen and is large enough to evaluate strategies for use in vehicle applications.

The design tools developed by Sandia researchers provide GM with a template for future designs and are expected to save the company significant time and money in developing hydrogen storage systems for onboard vehicular applications.

“For GM, the enduring value of this project can be found in the design concepts, computational tools, and control strategies that Sandia developed,” said Jim Spearot, GM lead executive for hydrogen storage.

[Julie Hall, 505.284.7761,
jchall@sandia.gov]