Australian scientists make progress in dealing with hydrogen embrittlement of steel
Australian researchers have made a step forward in addressing perhaps the biggest single obstacle to the large-scale roll-out of the hoped-for hydrogen economy: hydrogen embrittlement. This is the process whereby hydrogen causes high-strength materials, not least steel, to become brittle and crack. This means that hydrogen cannot be effectively stored and transported under high pressures. “The future of a large-scale hydrogen economy largely comes down to this issue,” highlighted University of Sydney researcher Dr Yi-Sheng Chen. “Hydrogen is notoriously insidious; as the smallest atom and molecule, it seeps into materials, then cracks and breaks them. To be able to effectively produce, transport, store and use hydrogen on a large-scale, this is not ideal.”