Metal hydrides for concentrating solar thermal power energy storage

The development of alternative methods for thermal energy storage is important for improving the efficiency and decreasing the cost for Concentrating Solar-thermal Power (CSP). We focus on the underlying technology that allows metal hydrides to function as Thermal Energy Storage (TES) systems and highlight the current state-of-the-art materials that can operate at temperatures as low as room-temperature and as high as 1100 oC. The potential of metal hydrides for thermal storage is explored while current knowledge gaps about hydride properties, such as hydride thermodynamics, intrinsic kinetics and cyclic stability, are identified. The engineering challenges associated with utilising metal hydrides for high-temperature thermal energy storage are also addressed

Generation of Femtosecond Electron Pulses

At the Fast Neutron Research Facility (FNRF), Chiang Mai University (Thailand), the SURIYA project has been established aiming to produce femtosecond electron pulses utilizing a combination of an S-band thermionic rf gun and a magnetic bunch compressor ({alpha}-magnet). A specially designed rf-gun has been constructed to obtain optimum beam characteristics for the best bunch compression. Simulation results show that bunch lengths as short as about 50 fs rms can be expected at the experimental station. The electron bunch lengths will be determined using autocorrelation of coherent transition radiation (TR) through a Michelson interferometer. The paper discusses beam dynamics studies, design, fabrication and cold tests of the rf-gun as well as presents the project current status and forth-coming experiments

Complex and liquid hydrides for energy storage

© 2016, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.The research on complex hydrides for hydrogen storage was initiated by the discovery of Ti as a hydrogen sorption catalyst in NaAlH4 by Boris Bogdanovic in 1996. A large number of new complex hydride materials in various forms and combinations have been synthesized and characterized, and the knowledge regarding the properties of complex hydrides and the synthesis methods has grown enormously since then. A significant portion of the research groups active in the field of complex hydrides is collaborators in the International Energy Agreement Task 32. This paper reports about the important issues in the field of complex hydride research, i.e. the synthesis of borohydrides, the thermodynamics of complex hydrides, the effects of size and confinement, the hydrogen sorption mechanism and the complex hydride composites as well as the properties of liquid complex hydrides. This paper is the result of the collaboration of several groups and is an excellent summary of the recent achievements