Can you tell me about H2MOF and why it was established
H2MOF was incorporated in 2021 by Nobel laureate Professor Sir Fraser Stoddart, Nobel laureate Professor Omar Yaghi, and Dr. Samer Taha. Based in Irvine, California, H2MOF is on a mission to decarbonize the energy system through the development of transformative hydrogen storage solutions, engineered with atomic precision. Capitalizing on decades of research and scientific advancement, H2MOF is deploying the latest discoveries and inventions by the founder of reticular chemistry, Professor Yaghi, and the founder of artificial molecular machinery, Professor Stoddart. By designing and developing durable and efficient solid-state hydrogen storage solutions that work under near-ambient temperatures and low pressure, we enable safe and cost-effective hydrogen storage and transportation.
How much of a demand is there currently for hydrogen, compared to electrification?
According to the IEA, the global hydrogen demand increased to almost 100 million tonnes (Mt) in 2024. Compared to the global demand for electricity, this is still a small number. That being said, we will need both to decarbonise the energy system. It is not either electricity or hydrogen. One of the key challenges holding back a wider adoption of hydrogen is storage which is exactly what our technology is tackling.
What do you think are the main sectors/applications that green hydrogen will be used for where electrification is not a realistic option?
There is a broad range of potential applications for (green) hydrogen. The most prominent are hard-to-abate industries such as chemical production, steel, or cement where electrification is not a viable option. Other areas such as long-haul transport, seasonal energy storage and backup power, or certain niche applications like UAVs are also promising. Across all of these, cost remains the critical barrier: delivered hydrogen prices need to fall significantly to enable wider adoption, and advances in storage will be central to achieving that.
Can you tell me more about the nano-engineered reticular materials used to engineer the solid-state hydrogen solution? What are these and can you say more about the process?
Reticular materials such as Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) or Covalent Organic Frameworks (COFs) are crystalline, highly porous materials. What makes them so special is the fact that they can be designed with atomic precision to “store” specific molecules in their pores. One gram of material can have the internal surface area of up to an entire soccer field. This is important because more pores equal more “parking lots” for molecules, enabling high storage efficiency. In our case, we nano-engineer the materials to store hydrogen molecules in solid state at low pressure and near-ambient temperature - an approach where having Prof. Omar Yaghi as a co-founder is invaluable. Yaghi is the founder of reticular chemistry and received the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of MOFs.
What are the main benefits of the solid-state hydrogen solution?
Hydrogen is very challenging to store due to its extremely low density. To achieve higher density, it is typically compressed at very high pressures (200-700 bar) or liquefied at cryogenic temperatures (-253 °C). Despite incremental improvements over the past decades, existing technologies for hydrogen storage remain inefficient and costly to operate.
Compression and liquefaction are energy-intensive processes. They present significant limitations – among them a high energy penalty between 15% and 40% of the energy stored in hydrogen, expensive infrastructure requirements, boil-off losses and safety concerns. Alternative storage methods, such as metal hydrides and Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carriers (LOHCs), operate under milder conditions but are still far from ideal due to limitations such as heavy weight, high energy requirements for charging and discharging and high investment costs.
Our solid-state technology based on nano-engineered reticular materials operates efficiently at pressures as low as 20 bar, which is less than 3% of the pressure of common 700-bar hydrogen tanks. This lower pressure not only mitigates the safety concerns associated with handling compressed hydrogen but also significantly reduces energy consumption costs, as no multi-stage compression is needed. In addition, our technology enables high storage density at ambient temperature, without the need for cryogenic cooling. This not only effectively mitigates the safety concerns associated with handling liquid hydrogen but also virtually eliminates boil-off losses and reduces the high energy consumption and cost penalties associated with liquefaction, storage and transportation of hydrogen with expensive cryogenic equipment. Also, because our solid-state technology works at low pressure and ambient temperature, it enables higher flexibility in the choice of tank materials and shapes, potentially allowing for non-cylindrical form factors that can be fitted into existing systems.
In summary, by eliminating the need for energy-intensive compression/liquefaction processes, and related equipment and operational costs, our technology lowers both OPEX and CAPEX costs and therefore enables a wider adoption of hydrogen.
What impact do you think this will have on costs?
The cost reduction for delivered hydrogen will be significant. If we assume a green hydrogen production plant with a 3 MT/day capacity delivering hydrogen 80-miles away, we can simulate transportation costs via road for both high-pressure and liquid hydrogen storage. H2MOF’s technology has the potential to lower the hydrogen delivery costs, thanks to lower energy penalties, simpler infrastructure requirements and low-cost transportation in high-capacity trailers, by a factor of 2-5.
Will solid-state hydrogen avoid expensive modification and/or replacement of existing infrastructure (for example because of hydrogen making steel brittle)?
Our solid-state technology stores hydrogen at low pressure and near-ambient temperature, allowing for a safer, easier handling compared to traditional high-pressure or cryogenic liquid technologies. Solid-state hydrogen storage systems have the potential to simplify the whole value chain. For example, we can directly capture low pressure hydrogen gas output from electrolysis, with no need for intermediate compression. Low-pressure containers can be loaded directly onto trucks, trains or ships and safely transported to their destination. Low pressure, near ambient temperature gas can be used directly for various end applications. Overall, solid-state technology has simpler infrastructure requirements, which contributes to driving down costs.
Where do you think H2MOF will be in, say, five years time?
In five years, we expect to have commercialized our technology across several application areas, translating decades of research by our founders into transformative and scalable solutions. By then, our technology will be deeply embedded into UAV, robotics, and shared micro-mobility applications thereby paving the way for larger scale applications across transportation and stationary storage.
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