Mg2Ni/Ni and LaMg2Ni alloy powders were exposed to hydrogen under isothermal and mechanical treatment conditions. In the former case, the amount of hydrogen absorbed tends with time to a final asymptotic value. Once such a value has been reached, further hydrogen absorption can be obtained only by submitting the powders to mechanical processing in the presence of hydrogen. Hydrogen absorption processes under isothermal and mechanical treatment conditions exhibited different kinetics and their rates have been compared on a phenomenological basis starting from kinetic evidences. It appeared that mechanical treatment enhances the rate of hydrogen absorption by four orders of magnitude as a consequence of a mix of surface area enlargement, temperature rise and local structural excitation processes. (C) 2009 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.