Carbon nanotubes for hydrogen storage as being studied by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Technical evaluation report

On June 17--18, the author met with Dr. Mike Heben of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to discuss his research on the development of carbon nanotubes to be used for the storage of hydrogen on-board a vehicle. Dr. Heben has been working for the past several years on a project that will develop single walled nanotubes (SWNTs) composed of carbon for storage of hydrogen. Dr. Heben has spent much time trying to develop a method by which he could produce SWNTs in sufficient quantity, and then demonstrate the adsorption and desorption of hydrogen from these nanotubes at room temperature. While Dr. Heben was able to show hydrogen adsorption levels of up to 10% on a SWNT basis, generation of SWNTs from an arc-discharge was only about 0.05% of the total soot formation. Therefore, increasing SWNT concentration was a key consideration. Findings from the meeting with Dr. Heben are presented.