Two of the main components the scientists will be studying are storage and transportation. Literally, how will the hydrogen be moved from point A to point B, and how will it be stored? For automotive use, the easiest way is a fuel tank to provide a stored amount of hydrogen fuel. The key to this is weight.

The scientists will conduct experiments to determine what combination of hydrogen and other compounds will provide the greatest stability and highest energy content for the weight of the tank that must be transported. Dixon says combinations of boron and nitrogen appear to be a good choice because these two light elements can carry quite a bit of hydrogen.

"And that's the key piece: How can I get a lot of hydrogen onto a compound and have it be stable enough to store underneath a car in a tank?" Dixon says. "If there's not a great enough percent weight of hydrogen in the chemical compound, it literally will be too heavy and would cost too much to carry around."

A gallon of gas weighs between 6 and 8 pounds, and a fill up for a 15 gallon tank weighs between 90 and 120 pounds.

"No one's going to want to bring that up to 500 pounds," he continues. "It would make your car less efficient and be a waste of energy. So what we have to come up with are low weight materials that release hydrogen safely and on demand without a lot of energy being required to release the hydrogen or to make the fuel, so we can keep it a cost-effective process."

Thrasher's work on heat exchange will impact both of these areas. "A chemical hydrogen storage system will likely be a solid material," he says. "In the refueling process, heat will be given off, and there has to be a way to dissipate that heat. Fluorocarbon materials will do a very good job of this because they have excellent heat capacities and a high solubility of hydrogen."