Dr. Rene Albert receives innovation award from the Deutscher Wasserstoff- und Brennstoffzellen Verband for his doctoral thesis on the thermal conductivity of metal hydrides

Dr. Rene Albert from the hydrogen storage group is awarded the Innovation Prize of the Deutscher Wasserstoff und Brennstoffzellen Verband.

Hydrogen is regarded as a central energy source of the 21st century, which, together with regenerative primary energies, forms the basis for the energy industry of the future. In order to make the energy transition possible, innovations and new technologies around hydrogen and its storage have to be researched and developed. The group “Hydrogen Storage” of Dr. Michael Felderhoff at the MPI für Kohlenforschung focuses, among other things, on the development of new light metal hydrides for storing hydrogen and on materials for high-temperature heat storage. Now Dr. Rene Albert from the Felderhoff group was awarded the innovation prize of the Deutscher Wasserstoff- und Brennstoffzellen Verband for his doctoral thesis. The reason for the award is that his work contributes to making hydrogen and fuel cell technology more suitable for use on a large scale. Rene Albert has been researching the topic "Thermal Conductivity Measurements of Metal Hydrides as High Temperature Heat Storage Materials under Operating Conditions" since 2016 and developed measuring methods to determine the thermal conductivity of nickel-activated magnesium or magnesium hydride in long-term use over a high number of charge and discharge cycles. The doctoral student was also able to show important differences in the aging process of the materials compared to magnesium iron hydride. The results obtained from the dissertation are already being used in the "HyHeatStore" project during the demonstration operation of a high-temperature thermal storage system with cooperation partners from science and industry.

Here you can find the German press release of the Deutscher Wasserstoff- und Brennstoffzellen Verband.