TF Design works in partnership with the Hydrogen Storage team at the South African Institute for Advanced Materials Chemistry (SAIAMC) / University of the Western Cape to develop hardware related to hydrogen storage, hydrogen separation/purification and hydrogen compression technologies utilising metal hydrides (MH).
For this particular application, a commercial-size metal hydride hydrogen compressor and dispensing station was developed as a prototype plant to refuel a hydrogen fuel cell-driven forklift. The project was implemented at Impala Platinum.
Hydrogen (available on site) is compressed from 50 bar to 200 bar and stored in a buffer system. A PLC-controlled hydrogen dispensing system dispenses the hydrogen from the buffer system into the forklift hydrogen tank.
The Metal Hydride-related hardware supplied by TF Design to SAIAMC combines new features in the design and operation with high quality and reliability. We note that a part of the MH systems are novel, both in South Africa and worldwide, and can be considered as joint developments of SAIAMC / UWC and TF Design. The corresponding developments were disclosed in one patent application and disseminated in 2 articles in a high-impact international journal and 3 presentations at international conferences prepared by the SAIAMC team with co-authorship of TF Design engineers.
