The paper describes the reactor developed in our laboratory for studying hydrogen absorption characteristics of materials suitable for hydrogen energy storage and H₂-D₂ separation. Vanadium pentoxide has been chosen for the case study. It is found that platinum activated V₂O₅ reacts with hydrogen at around 150°C to give H₃V₂O₅. The hydrogen insertion creates distortion in the orthorhombic structure of V₂O₅ and decreases the crystal symmetry by forming a monoclinic phase of composition H₆V₄O₁₀. On heating the hydride phase at 426°C in air, V₂O₅ can be recovered as finer (compared to the starting material) powder. The enthalpy of hydride formation is estimated as 12.15 kcal/mol H₂, the plateau pressure being 2.2 atm.