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Comment by 3rd3 | Hacker News Reader

Isn't there still the problem that storing hydrogen is impractical?

Yes and No.

Storing liquified gasses is a solved problem. The auto-industry at least has been experimenting with Liquid Propane Gas for a while, without issues. Actually most automobiles in Turkey run on LPG.

Hydrogen is a slightly different animal, colder temperatures, and more explosive. We know the materials that will work, we know how to produce them. Its more of an engineering/production/economy of scale issue then anything else.

Hydrogen storage is significantly more difficult than LPG.

The pressures need to be higher, which means stronger and more expensive tanks. It also means we must input more energy to compress the gas for storage.

Hydrogen is also significantly smaller and more reactive than NG. Which also means the tanks are more expensive as they need to be resistant against corrosion. Additionally, the valves and seals in the system need to be of a higher class as hydrogen is more prone to leak.

Hydrogen embrittlement of metal storage tanks can also be an issue: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_damage

And then of course, since you can not stop the hydrogen from leaking, you have to make sure that the storage for the hydrogen storage is sufficiently secure.

Can't keep the car in the garage.

Also the density of liquid hydrogen is extremely low, meaning you need a huge tank to store more than a little bit of it.

The story claims that they are "locking up the hydrogen in a liquid." They say they are actually producing the hydrogen in a different chamber from where the electrolysis is done. They don't discuss the possibility of storage in this intermediate liquid, however.

Maybe it would be possible to store the liquid and release the hydrogen only when it is actually going to be used.

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