It is well known that metal hydrides can be used to compress hydrogen. In the present study, AB(5) type and AB(2) type multicomponent hydrogen storage alloys have been studied for the purpose of high-pressure hydrogen compression. A single stage metal hydride hydrogen compressor with hydrogen compression rate of 40L/min and a double stage compressor with hydrogen compression rate of 20L/min were designed and built to produce high-pressure hydrogen. The single-stage compressor produces high-pressure hydrogen around 45 MPa from 4 MPa feed gas, when hot oil at 170 degrees C is used as the heat source. The double-stage compressor rather needs only hot water to produce 45 MPa hydrogen. (c) 2007 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.