MHCoE Partners Meeting, December 11–12, 2007, Livermore, CA

Sandia is the lead laboratory for the DOE Metal Hydride Center of Excellence (MHCoE), one of three Department of Energy (DOE) Centers of Excellence dedicated to solving the problem of storing hydrogen on automobiles. As the lead laboratory, Sandia is responsible for coordinating the overall technical direction of the MHCoE, and interfacing to our DOE sponsors in the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) office.

The Sandia Management Team is comprised of Lennie Klebanoff (MHCoE Director), along with Jay Keller (Sandia Hydrogen Program Manager) and Marcina Moreno (financial manager).

Sandia MHCoE Management Team (L to R), Lennie Klebanoff, Marcina Moreno and Jay Keller

The goal of the MHCoE is to find a material that can reversibly absorb and desorb hydrogen so that hydrogen-powered cars become practical and affordable. We seek a material that can release hydrogen with very little energy input, and that can rapidly take on hydrogen during re-fueling at a hydrogen filling station. The material must satisfy the stated DOE goals for hydrogen storage as indicated in the DOE website. Among these requirements is that the material must support system storage weight of 6 percent hydrogen.

The MHCoE is comprised of ten universities (Stanford, Caltech, U. Pittsburgh, Georgia Tech , U. of Utah, U. Hawaii, U. Nevada-Reno, U. of Illinois, Ohio State U and U. of New Brunswick), six national laboratories (Sandia National Laboratory, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Savannah River National Laboratory, and National Institute of Standards and Technology) and two companies (HRL Laboratories and United Technologies Research Center).

All of these partners work together to perform state-of-the-art R&D on this important national problem. The research areas of the MHCoE include:

• Destabilized Metal Hydrides
• Complex Anionic Materials
• Amides and Imides
• Modified Aluminum Hydride (AlH₃)
• Materials properties for engineering applications.

The MHCoE also includes a Theory Group for rapid exploration and prediction of new materials with potential for solving the hydrogen storage problem. The MHCoE theory group is led by Mark Allendorf of Sandia.

Sandia's R&D activities in the MHCoE focus on new materials discovery including lightweight borohydride materials (Ewa Rönnebro, Tim Boyle, Mutlu Kartin and Vitalie Stavila), theoretical prediction of new materials (Eric Majzoub and Mark Allendorf) and advanced characterization (Rob Kolasinski and Rich Behrens).

Contact:

Dr. Lennie Klebanoff, Sandia National Laboratories,
Director of MHCoE
Phone: 925-294-3471
Email: lekleba@sandia.gov