360º PERSPECTIVES | ISSUE 7 | 2020/2021
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Novel metal hydrides fuel storage cell development
F
IVE YEARS AGO, HYDROGEN SOUTH AFRICA (HYSA) SYSTEMS at the University of the
Western Cape (UWC) unveiled the first forklift and refuelling station prototypes in Africa to be powered by hydrogen fuel cells. Dr Mykhaylo Lototskyy, a key technology specialist in hydrogen storage and related applications at HySA, and his team developed the prototypes in
collaboration with the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) and Impala Platinum (Implats). The novel metal hydrides used to store the hydrogen that powers the fuel cells of the forklift and to compress the hydrogen for the refuelling station were engineered by HySA by combining certain metallic alloys with hydrogen. >>