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 * Home
 * About
   * Partners
   * Funding
 * Technology
   * Why Hydrogen Storage?
 * Sustainability
 * Events
   * Previous Events
   * Upcoming Events
 * FAQs
 * News
 * Articles
 * Contact

 * Home
 * About
    * Partners
    * Funding

 * Technology
    * Why Hydrogen Storage?

 * Sustainability
 * Events
    * Previous Events
    * Upcoming Events

 * FAQs
 * News
 * Articles
 * Contact




 * PIONEERING NEW
   GRID-SCALE HYDROGEN
   STORAGE TECHNOLOGY
   
   The potential to transform the
   transition to net zero


 * Pioneering new
   grid-scale hydrogen
   storage technology

UTILISES THE EXCEPTIONAL BUT UNTIL NOW LARGELY OVERLOOKED HYDROGEN STORAGE
PROPERTIES OF DEPLETED URANIUM (DU)

The development of HyDUS (Hydrogen Depleted Uranium Storage) is a collaborative
project involving EDF UK (lead partner), the University of Bristol, Urenco and
UKAEA.

HyDUS’s grid-scale storage is designed to meet three key objectives.

To help balance fluctuations in the supply of energy from renewables such as
wind and solar. Large-scale storage is vital to ensure power from renewables is
dependable and available on demand.

To help decarbonise the national grid.

To provide high purity hydrogen to heavy industries finding it hard to
decarbonise.




HYDROGEN’S GREEN ENERGY POTENTIAL

WHEN BURNED,
HYDROGEN EMITS NO
GREENHOUSE GASES

HYDROGEN IS
RELATIVELY EASY
TO MANUFACTURE

IT IS THE MOST
ABUNDANT ELEMENT
IN THE UNIVERSE


H2 STORAGE CHALLENGES

Hydrogen is widely considered to be a prime candidate to replace natural gas
(methane/CH), on which the UK has depended for years for heat and electricity.
But before this can happen, the tricky issue of H2 storage needs to be resolved.

Physical storage of hydrogen is inefficient.

Storage as a compressed gas at pressures of up to 900 times atmospheric is
volumetrically inefficient and carries safety implications.

Storage as a liquid requires costly and constant cryogenic cooling to minus
253°C.

Without effective, efficient grid-scale storage, hydrogen’s huge potential will
never happen.




THE HYDUS SOLUTION



The HyDUS system makes innovative use of depleted uranium, an unlikely material
to feature in the shift to green energy but one that has unexpected and quite
remarkable hydrogen storage properties.

DU is a waste by-product of the nuclear industry. It has been around for decades
– and in all this time no significant commercial uses have been found for it.

DU as a material had been largely ignored until research by the HyDUS team
explored whether it could play any part in the transition from fossil fuels.

The results of our investigations were unexpected. They also revealed that DU is
plentiful and readily available in the UK thanks for years of stockpiling.


THE PROCESS UNDERPINNING HYDUS

Across the periodic table are many different metallic elements that will react
with hydrogen and store it as a chemical compound known as a hydride (or
metallic hydride).

The most efficient hydride-forming metal is palladium – but with a price higher
than gold, it’s not a candidate for large-scale hydrogen storage.

Depleted uranium is the next most efficient and as such is the focus of our
team’s work.

DU reacts with hydrogen and stores it as uranium trihydride (UH3), which
contains three hydrogen atoms for every one uranium atom. At an ambient
temperature and pressure it can chemically store H2 at over twice the density of
pure liquid hydrogen, which is a remarkable characteristic.

Uranium trihydride (UH3)


2X

the storage density of
pure liquid hydrogen


SIMPLE RELEASE MECHANISM

To release the hydrogen from the hydride, all you have to do is heat it. At
temperatures above 250°C, the hydride starts to thermally decompose, releasing
the hydrogen as a gas and leaving the uranium as metal again.

The beauty of this process is that the hydride can be formed and unformed time
after time, making it ideal for grid-scale hydrogen storage with the bonus that
the that the material is already available in large quantities because it has
been stockpiled as industrial waste.

HyDUS can convert electricity to hydrogen via electrolysis and store it for
future use, which can be directly as hydrogen or converted back to electricity
via a fuel cell when required.


THE NEXT STEP: THE WORLD’S FIRST PILOT-SCALE DU HYDROGEN STORAGE DEMONSTRATOR

Whilst the hydrogen storage credentials of depleted uranium have been rigorously
tested in the laboratory, there is now a need to demonstrate the concept at a
larger scale.

To this end, the HyDUS team has embarked on the world’s first pilot-scale
demonstrator of bulk hydrogen storage using depleted uranium. This is scheduled
for completion by 2024.



90 Whitfield Street
London
W1T 4EZ
 * info@hydus.org

Created by HTP Digital

90 Whitfield Street
London
W1T 4EZ
 * info@hydus.org

Created by HTP Digital