Materials Research Laboratory Contributes to the Development of a Hydrogen Storage Tank

The hydrogen storage tank for the refueling station was constructed based on a concept developed by the Materials Research Laboratory at the University of Nova Gorica, in collaboration with several Slovenian companies (ECubes, d. o. o., H2Genium, d. o. o., Sitel, d. o. o., CPPE, d. o. o. and Etra, d. o. o. "We do not store hydrogen in the tank, which can be potentially dangerous due to the high pressures, but it can be produced on-demand at the time of consumption," explained Prof. Dr. Matjaž Valant, Head of the Materials Research Laboratory and Dean of the School of Environmental Sciences. He believes that this way of using hydrogen will be much safer and socially acceptable.

The refueling station will be useful for both refueling vehicles and generating electricity, as it can be connected to fuel cells to convert hydrogen into electricity. "We have made the storage tank for this refueling station, as well as the power part that contains the fuel cells, and then we integrated these together," explained Prof. Dr. Valant.

For Salonit Anhovo, the hydrogen refueling station is the first step towards carbon-neutral transport for cement, said Tomaž Vuk, Member of the Management Board of Salonit Anhovo. "Transport is not the biggest source of greenhouse gases in our work but the technology is more developed here," he added.

Andreja Leban, Public Relations