Professor Hiroshige Matsumoto (Advanced Energy Conversion Systems Thrust) and Professor Tsuyohiko Fujigaya (Advanced Energy Conversion Systems Thrust) have joined an international research partnership with RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, to develop the ‘proton battery’ and ‘proton flow reactor’ systems for energy storage.

This one-year collaborative project funded by ‘Veski’, a Victorian State Government organisation, will enable follow-up research and development to an earlier RMIT project in which I2CNER participated with RMIT that was supported by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency

The novel systems being investigated store protons produced by water splitting in porous carbon materials. In electricity supply – discharge – mode these protons are released and combine with electrons and oxygen from the air to form water once again.

The proton battery may be a competitor with lithium-ion batteries, while the related proton flow reactor system may allow export of green hydrogen in the form of hydrogenated carbon-based powder.