Technical Inquires:
Greg Olson
310-317-5457

HRL Awarded DOE Program for On-Board Reversible Hydrogen Storage Materials

LOS ANGELES, July 25, 2005- HRL Laboratories, LLC has been awarded a three-year contract from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to develop solid state hydrogen storage materials that meet or exceed the goals for on-board, reversible hydrogen storage established by the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. The development of an efficient and cost-effective method for hydrogen storage is a critical enabling technology for hydrogen-fuel-cell-powered vehicles.

HRL Laboratories, Malibu, California, is a participant in the Metal Hydride Center of Excellence (MHCoE), a Research and Development (R&D) consortium recently established by the DOE and comprising 17 universities, government laboratories, and industry research centers coordinated by Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, California. The MHCoE is part of the National Hydrogen Research Initiative, and was formed in response to DOE's "Grand Challenge" solicitation to the R&D community to address the major technical barriers to on-board hydrogen storage.

Specifically, the HRL program will focus on extending HRL's recent work on alloying metal hydride materials to make them more practical for vehicular applications by increasing the speed of hydrogen release from these materials through the strategic use of catalysts and structuring of the materials on the nanoscale. Previously, HRL has successfully demonstrated the use of alloy formation to destabilize conventional metal hydrides, thereby reducing the energy investment required for the release of hydrogen gas from a metal hydride.

HRL Laboratories, LLC is a corporate R&D laboratory owned by Boeing, General Motors, and Raytheon. HRL provides custom R&D and performs additional R&D contract services for its three LLC Members, for the U.S. government, and for other commercial entities.

###