"It is an often heard statement that hydrogen is the fuel of the future; some people add, "and will always be." Why is the first element in the periodic table so important to our future? Its combustion produces energy with no release of CO2, since it does not contain carbon. Its use in fuel cells does not emit NOx. It can be produced from water, which is available widely and more abundantly than fossil fuels. How do we make its generation, storage, and distribution affordable? These precisely are the issues discussed comprehensively in the 12 chapters of this book...Many of the contributors in this multi-author volume participated in three hydrogen storage centers of excellence set up by the US Department of Energy, which accounts for the uniformity of style and quality in this book. Contributions come from four countries: the United States, Canada, China, and the United Kingdom, reflecting international concerns.
The book as a whole will be a good reference in a graduate level course on energy systems and will also be useful to scientists and engineers in fundamental and industrial research. Policymakers will especially be interested in Section I.
The publication of this book is timely. Materials tend to be closer to commercialization when they have more than one application. Metal hydrides, for example, originally developed for hydrogen storage, and discussed in depth in Chapters 5 and 6, are now used in concentrating solar power plants to store power produced from intermittent solar radiation. New catalysts are being discovered for generating hydrogen from water using sunlight: porous silicon with pore size 8-15 nm; nontoxic, cheap, and abundant materials like tin oxides for water-splitting reactions using visible light; and cobalt-containing molecules grafted to semiconductors and subnanometer gold clusters, to name a few. Recently, it was found that a combination of aluminum oxide, water, and olivine subjected to 2 kbar pressure at 200-300 DegreesC liberates hydrogen from water while the remaining oxygen converts olivine to serpentine. Automobile companies are turning to hydrogen in order to meet the exacting standards for emissions and fuel economy.
The future is closer than we think."
-N. Balasubramaniani in the MRS Bulletin, July 2014

"I wish this book or something like it had been around years ago, as it demystifies the aforementioned options and then some. ... I'm happy to add this useful book to our lab's technical library."
-Richard Engel in The Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Letter, August 2013

"This book is a timely publication on exploring the possibilities of storing hydrogen for commercial applications. It covers most, if not all, important components of hydrogen storage and its automotive applications. ... Recommended."
-J. Tavakoli, in CHOICE, August 2013

"... a breath of fresh air in the field of hydrogen storage. While a great deal has already been written on this topic, this book is unique in that it combines materials science, physics and engineering aspects on various hydrogen storage methods into a single volume, not forgetting application issues. Given that the book summarizes the current state of the art of hydrogen storage in an easy-to-read and yet authoritative manner, it should be treated as compulsory reading for students and researchers in the field. ... I am convinced that the book will become yet another landmark in the quest for introducing hydrogen as a renewable energy carrier in our daily life."
-Professor Klaus Yvon, Physics Department, University of Geneva, Switzerland

"Hydrogen Storage Technology: Materials and Applications is a comprehensive, informative, and timely treatise on a technology area that is critical for emerging hydrogen fuel cell power systems. The editor provides a compelling motivation for the development of a robust energy carrier infrastructure based on hydrogen. In addition, leading scientists and engineers in the fields of hydrogen storage materials research and hydrogen fuel cell systems engineering provide excellent overviews of the current state of the art of specific storage approaches, and they candidly discuss remaining challenges and prospects for the successful implementation of those approaches in practical power conversion systems. The book is a well-written, in-depth look at a vital technology area, and I feel that it will undoubtedly become an important resource for students, researchers, engineers, and policy makers who are working to improve our global energy and environmental future."
-Gregory L. Olson, Ph.D., Consultant to U.S. Department of Energy Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Program and HRL Laboratories (retired)

"This book provides an invaluable, comprehensive resource to researchers interested in the development of hydrogen storage systems for fuel cell vehicles."
-Jeffrey R. Long, Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, USA