(2005) Amminex has invented a technology that is a step towards the idea of a hydrogen-based economy: a hydrogen tablet.

Safe and efficient storage of hydrogen is one of the important steps towards using hydrogen as a future energy carrier. Hydrogen is a light gas that - under normal conditions - requires large storage containers, and it is also a dangerous fuel because it is flammable and very explosive when mixed with air. Of course, the world has to rethink the exploitation of fossil fuels, so there are high hopes riding on a hydrogen-based transport system and economy. Produced from renewable energy sources or from the reforming of fossil fuels followed by proper sequestration of CO2, hydrogen is a very interesting energy carrier.

The solid hydrogen tablet invented by the Danish research team is safe to handle and consists of inexpensive and abundant raw materials. This makes it different from most other hydrogen storage technologies. You can literally carry the material in your pocket without any kind of safety precaution. If the current size of storage units is scaled up, it is sufficient to use in a regular sized fuel tank of 50-80 liters for normal driving distances.

The tablet consists solely of ammonia absorbed efficiently in compact salt units. Ammonia has a high hydrogen capacity and stored safely in a solid form enables the material to contain large amounts of hydrogen per unit volume.