This New Battery Can Hold Ten Times More Hydrogen Energy Than Lithium

Researchers from Dresden, Germany, came up with a new way to store up to 10 times the hydrogen energy of a lithium battery, and their magnesium-based “Powerpaste” could potentially become a replaceable way to use clean energy.

According to the team from Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials, vehicles running on a Powerpaste powertrain can expect a range “comparable to – or even greater than – gasoline.”

The Powerpaste – a sludgy goop produced by a combination of magnesium and hydrogen at a high temperature and a great atmospheric pressure, with the addition of metal salt and an ester – stores the hydrogen in a chemical form. It is ready for release when needed. Thanks to this fuel paste, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles can go further than the gasoline-powered ones and refuel in mere minutes by replacing an empty cartridge with a full one, like a bottle of BBQ gas, hence the Powerpaste’s potential to become an easy way to use clean energy in a range of devices.