From Der Spiegel:

Technology from the Soviet space program adapted by Israeli and German scientists may offer a safe way to deliver the volatile gas to power laptops and cars.

Israeli entrepreneur Moshe Stern admits he didn't know much about alternative energy when Russian scientist Evgeny Velikhov first approached him in 2005 about a novel technology for safely storing hydrogen gas. But four years later, the 62-year-old Stern has become an expert-and a believer. He is convinced that the Russian invention could play a major role in helping scientific institutions and industrial giants harness the commercial potential of hydrogen as a green energy source.

Now, Stern's conviction has just gotten a big outside boost. The hydrogen storage technology, being developed by Stern's Swiss-based startup, C.En, has been endorsed for its safety by a top German institute-an important vote of confidence, given that hydrogen is highly explosive and that safety has long been a major stumbling block to its commercialization.

On Nov. 25, Germany's Federal Institute for Materials Research & Testing, released results of nearly two years of tests on C.En's technology, which involves the storage of compressed hydrogen inside bundles of thin, strong tubes of glass, known as capillary arrays. "The lightweight storage and safety factors give the technology a huge commercial potential for a whole range of industries," says Kai Holtappels, who heads up the working group at BAM that has been testing the technology since February 2008.

The timing couldn't me more fitting, as hundreds of delegates, scientists, and world leaders gather in Copenhagen for the UN Conference on Climate Change to discuss how to reduce carbon emissions and support eco-friendly technology.

Batteries for Electronics

A team of scientists first invented the capillary array technology at Moscow's Kurchatov Institute for use in the Soviet space program. Stern thinks his system can be adopted by the electronics industry to replace conventional batteries in portable devices such as laptops and mobile phones. He and C.En's chief scientist, Dan Eliezer, already have begun meeting with potential corporate customers. "We're planning to license out the technology on a company-by-company basis, with the first agreement during 2010," says Stern.

The automotive and aerospace industries could offer even bigger opportunities. Hydrogen-powered vehicles have long been explored as a means to reduce pollution and curb Western dependence on imported oil. Germany's BMW and Japan's Honda Motors have poured hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years into developing hydrogen-fueled cars.

The challenges of using hydrogen, though, have always been the size of containers needed to store the volatile gas and the risk of explosion. C.En claims to have overcome those problems with its leakproof capillary arrays. "Glass has proven to have three times the storage capacity at only a third of the weight of steel containers that are now commonly used for hydrogen storage, and it's far cheaper," says Eliezer.

Outside experts are impressed at the potential, but are taking a wait-and-see attitude. "If C.En's capillaries can withstand the external pressure, the technology could be practical in vehicles and electrical devices," says Yoel Sasson, a professor of applied chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who notes that another critical factor will be the cost of producing the capillary arrays.