Measuring and Removing Trace Impurities from Silicon Fuel, a Hydrogen Storage Material

"Silicon Fuel is nano-material which is manufactured and pressed into pellets by Silicon Fuel Ltd. These pellets react with water to generate hydrogen, which can be used to supply a fuel cell to generate electricity. This new material has the potential to facilitate the developing hydrogen economy, by allowing the use of cheaper hydrogen generation equipment, making hydrogen gas cheaper and easier to access. For example, it could allow the installation of cheaper hydrogen refuelling stations for delivering hydrogen to fuel cell electric vehicles.

If the hydrogen generated from Silicon Fuel can be certified to international standards, then it has a demonstrably high purity which allows it to be used in a range of applications (such as refuelling fuel cell electric vehicles). The current method of manufacturing Silicon Fuel results in low levels of impurities in the pellets, which can be transferred to the hydrogen gas when it is generated. Although the impurities do not prevent the running of fuel cells, they can prevent certification of the hydrogen gas to international standards, likely limiting the market acceptance of Silicon Fuel technology.

This project aims to accurately measure the levels of key impurities in the raw Silicon Fuel material, and in the hydrogen it generates, and to develop an improved method for manufacturing Silicon Fuel so that the amount of impurities present are reduced to the minimum possible levels. We hope this will facilitate the certification of Silicon Fuel, leading to market acceptance and uptake."