Geopolymers - new types of hydrogen storage

"Geopolymers are like chemically produced minerals, i.e. aluminium silicates, which can be made from raw materials such as burnt clay or inorganic industrial waste streams. Their production is simple and takes place at room temperature. Geopolymers have a wide range of applications such as water purification or the construction industry, where it is hoped that geopolymers will significantly reduce emissions," says Tero Luukkonen, Associate Professor at the University of Oulu. The three-year project was awarded €450 000 from the 100 Years Foundation of the Technology Industry.

Hydrogen is one of the key future energy carriers of the green transition and can be used, for example, in vehicles and as a substitute for natural gas. Hydrogen can be stored as a gas at high pressure, as a liquid at low temperature or converted into, for example, ammonia. However, all these options have practical problems, which is why hydrogen bonding to the surface of solid materials is being actively explored.

In the current project, geopolymers are being investigated for hydrogen storage on their own, but particularly interesting properties are expected when geopolymers are combined with materials already known to be promising, such as metal-organic frameworks. "In this case, geopolymers can protect these often unstable materials and operating pressures and temperatures for hydrogen storage closer to normal everyday conditions can be achieved," explains Luukkonen.

GeoH2 will make use of the extensive knowledge of geopolymers that has been accumulated over more than ten years in the Fibre and Particle Technology Research Unit of the University of Oulu. The University of Oulu is one of the most important centres for hydrogen research in Finland, and the project will complement this from the point of view of hydrogen storage research.

Read the Finnish press release