Economic activities are said to be the causes of environmental problems such as resource depletion, pollution, toxic wastes, and global warming. Especially, the most significant cause of global warming is carbon dioxide concentration of the atmosphere resulting from fossil fuel combustion. Because fossil fuels were formed by decomposition of plants and animals, the system of carbon dioxide and fuels needs long terms for cycling.

Hydrogen is the simplest and most abundant element, making up about 90% of the Universe by weight. On the other hand, the element does not exist naturally in any useful quantities. However, hydrogen can be easily obtained by the electrolysis of water and the steam reforming of natural gas and be available as thermal, mechanical, and electrical energies. When the electrical energy are produced by renewable energy such as wind, solar, and geothermal energies, hydrogen can produced by water and be available as an energy storage device. The combustion of hydrogen with oxygen produces water as its only product. Therefore hydrogen can be said have the potential to provide for energy in transportation, distributed heat and power generation and energy storage systems with little or no impact on the environment.

Materials for Hydrogen Energy Systems laboratory mainly researches hydrogen storage materials which can be stored hydrogen to high density and emit when you need. Hydrogen normally exists in a gaseous state at standard temperature and pressure. Therefore a container needs for storing hydrogen with efficiently and securely in a small volume. The hydrogen storage materials have the potential to become a safe and efficient way to store hydrogen. Many kinds of hydrogen storage materials are investigated such as transition metals and complex hydrides. Our group mainly researches following four topics.

1. A fuel cell which is light and has high gravimetric density of the stored hydrogen
2. Effect of plastic deformation for hydrogen storage materials
3. Development of reaction between materials and hydrogen
4. Thermodynamic and kinetic study for hydrogen storage materials
   We would like to contribute for society and the earth by the above studies.