the storage of compressed hydrogen gas in cylindrical glass microcapsules is a new concept that offers potential merits of lightweight, low cost, and simplicity in system design. the strongly temperature dependent permeability of candidate glass materials to hydrogen gas allows compressed hydrogen gas to be stored and retrieved from microcapsules at required rates by appropriate temperature adjustments. the major emphasis of work has been placed on developing the processes and techniques for hollow fibre drawing, fabrication of microcapsules and test modules, evaluation of microcapsule properties, and laboratory-scale hydrogen charge and discharge trials. these development efforts were followed by those for refinement and optimization, with particular interest in improving microcapsule strength and dimensional consistency recently, axial tensile strengths of over 700 mpa were achieved for microcapsules with aspect ratios higher than 25'1. hydrogen storage capacity of over 2 wt.percent has been demonstrated in laboratory trials