GreenH2Metals: Sustainable and recyclable metal alloys for efficient and safe hydrogen storage

Education and Research

Recurring scientific symposium series on functional materials, recently focused on hydrogen and AI for materials.

Innovation center of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft focused on applied research and demonstration facilities, used here as the venue for the symposium.

Interdisciplinary nanoscience research center focusing on functional materials, including materials for hydrogen technologies.

Functional materials for hydrogen production include electrocatalysts and ion‑conducting membranes used in water electrolysis systems, such as proton exchange membrane (PEM) or anion exchange membrane (AEM) electrolysers, which split water into hydrogen and oxygen. These materials must combine high activity, stability under operating conditions, and often low use of scarce critical metals, while enabling compact, efficient stacks suitable for large‑scale green hydrogen plants.

Pipeline and infrastructure materials for hydrogen transport comprise steels, coatings, and sealing materials that can withstand hydrogen’s tendency to cause embrittlement and leakage in conventional gas pipeline systems. The Ruhr region historically operated extensive hydrogen pipeline networks serving the chemical industry, and knowledge from that era is now being revisited and updated for modern hydrogen corridors that connect production sites, industrial clusters, and storage facilities.

Materials for hydrogen storage include metal hydride alloys and chemical hydrogen carriers that can reversibly absorb and release hydrogen, offering an alternative to compressed or liquefied hydrogen storage.[10] Research projects in the Ruhr region, such as GreenH2Metals at Ruhr University Bochum and catalytic materials programs at Forschungszentrum Jülich, investigate sustainable and recyclable metal alloys and catalysts that can store hydrogen safely and efficiently for stationary applications.[10]

Duisburg, Ruhr area, North Rhine-Westphalia

A University of Delaware spin-out developing advanced membrane and electrolyzer technologies for green hydrogen, cited here to illustrate the broader field of functional