LESGO project aims for effective hydrogen storage
Project LESGO of the European Commission aims to develop practical and effective hydrogen storage solutions, based on graphene, that will promote an affordable and eco-friendly means of supplying electrical power on demand where required.
The project, which started in November 2020 under the full name “Light to Store chemical Energy in reduced Graphene Oxide for electricity generation”, is engaging industrial, academic and research partners across 6 countries in order to effectively bring the future products to the market. It is expected that a product of the project will be tested as the fuel in a support battery for electric vehicles within project duration.
The technological idea is based on hydrogen storage in reduced graphene oxide (rGO), a widely available, eco-friendly and safe, solid storage medium. The hydrogen will be stored by bonding with carbon in rGO. Hydrogen will be released by breaking the carbon-hydrogen bond, as is the case in 95% of the contemporary H2 storage solutions. However, most of those solutions employ liquid hydrocarbons for storage, where hydrogen extraction releases a large amount of CO2 gas. This is not the case with the proposed novel rGO-hydrogen fuel, the use of which will be completely cyclical and emission-free.
Storage in rGO provides energy density that is 100 times larger than that of H2 gas, and a medium that is solid and transportable to the point of energy generation.
The project, with funding larger than 4 million EUR over three years, is led by ICFO.
