Hydrogen absorbing alloys for automotive use

Hydrogen absorbing alloys are expected for "New Energy Carrier" in our future society. The main advantages of a hydrogen storage tank using the hydrogen absorbing alloy are its increased compactness and safety level. These are the reasons we have been investigating hydrogen absorbing alloys for automotive use. Through the investigations of "Laves Phase Related BCC solid solutions", we have developed a new BCC alloy with a large desorbing capacity of more than 2 mass%2 For the practical use of this alloy, we have also developed a series of technologies, such as the technologies for future mass production and cost reduction, as well as the technologies to improve hydrogen absorbing and desorbing properties. We applied these technologies to produce the hydrogen absorbing alloy for the tank of our (prototype) fuel cell hybrid vehicles, named "FCHV-1" in 1996 and "FCHV-3" in 2001.