Chemical regeneration of hydrogen storage materials

Several chemical hydrides, such as NaBH4, LiAlH4, AlH3 and B–N–H compounds, containing high hydrogen capacity (>10 wt%) have attracted increasing attention as promising hydrogen storage candidates recently. However, to realize a wide use of these hydrides in the future “hydrogen economy”, a serious challenge that we have to face is how to regenerate the spent fuels of these hydrides efficiently. In recent years, some potentially cost- and energy-efficient chemical methods to regenerate these hydrides from their spent fuels have been experimentally and theoretically demonstrated. These remarkable advances in regeneration techniques are considerably promoting the practical application of these materials as available hydrogen storage media. In this review, we highlight the details of chemical regeneration of these hydrides and briefly discuss the advances, challenges and feasible solutions towards each regeneration scheme in their hydrogen storage chemistry.