Portable hydrogen storage containers are being designed, tested and developed for a growing market. Possible uses for portable hydrogen storage canisters include uninterrupted power supply (UPS) devices, modular fuel containers for lift trucks and other applications. Testing different canister designs requires methods for measuring canister wall stress, hydrogen desorption rate, storage capacity degradation, burst strength after cycling and other key parameters. Some of the work at Texaco Ovonic Hydrogen Systems during the past three years has led to the development of tests which can quickly and thoroughly evaluate canister designs. Methods for using calculating allowable wall stress are presented.