One more for the road...
https://energynews.biz/why-hydrogen-powder-can-change-everything/amp/
Researchers at Deakin University appear to have identified a significantly cheaper and more intriguing method of production and storage: the transformation of hydrogen into powder by utilizing the principles of chemical mechanics.
The objective here is to initiate chemical reactions utilizing mechanical forces as opposed to heat, light, or electrical potential differences.This implies that far less energy is required.
To convert their hydrogen into powder, the researchers placed the gas in a cylindrical container containing steel balls and boron nitride, a substance known for its absorption properties.
The chamber’s spinning transforms the steel balls into pestles. By pulverizing boron nitride, the hydrogen is eventually trapped in the powder, which may then be utilized as-is.
“Currently, the petrochemical sector employs a cryogenic technique to remove hydrogen from crude oil,” the researchers add. Several gases are present in this oil, so to separate and purify them, they are cooled until they become liquid and then heated.
The gases evaporate at varying temperatures, which is how they are separated.In comparison, the mechanical-chemical approach developed by the researchers takes only 10% of the energy currently utilized to make the gas.
This equates to a few tens of pennies for tens of hours of “pulverization.” Presently, scientists are at the earliest stages of developing this separation and storage technique. Their next objective is to demonstrate that hydrogen-free boron nitride may be recycled indefinitely."
