ARDICA TECHNOLOGIES, INC. — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: A16-135

Description

Ardica Technologies, Inc. has identified aluminum hydride, AlH3 or “Alane”, as a hydrogen storage material for ground vehicle fuel cell systems. Alane has 10.1% hydrogen by weight, and a volumetric energy density of 147 g H2/L, significantly greater than compressed hydrogen. It operates at moderate temperature with minimal energy input, and does not require any pressure vessels. In this Phase I proposal Ardica will build a benchtop system to assess the feasibility of using Alane, and show its performance in comparison to compressed hydrogen. Ardica will then create an analytical model of a large Alane cartridge, and conduct experiments to establish material properties which will improve the model accuracy. The results of this will establish the performance and cost of a scaled-up prototype hydrogen storage system. As an option, Ardica will develop a system model to investigate different system architectures for a scaled-up Alane hydrogen fuel cell powered ground vehicle. The validation of Alane’s feasibility, and the results of these models will enable Ardica to create a large-scale prototype during a Phase II proposal.