Session: 03-03 Hydrogen Applications 1

Paper Number: 129410

129410 - Experimental Investigation of a Physisorption-Based Hydrogen Storage System 

With a shift to renewable energy sources, hydrogen's prominence as a zero-carbon emission fuel is growing as it could be produced via electrolysis using water and curtailed electricity. This allows for balancing supply and demand within power grids. A concept often referred to as power to x. Here, energy is stored in the chemical bonds of Hydrogen. However, the storage of hydrogen itself is not trivial.

Hydrogen storage is realized in four different ways: The most popular are compressed and liquid hydrogen storage. To a lesser extent the chemical storage in the form of another carrier, such as ammonia or e-methanol. All forms of storage have their particular advantages and drawbacks. The fourth approach, adsorption-based storage, has gained traction recently. Hydrogen is physically adsorbed to the large surface areas of nano-porous materials; e.g. carbon nano-tubes or silica aerogels. As the bonds are weak, quick charging and discharging of such systems is expected. 

An experimental setup was developed for this study. A pressure vessel is tightly packed with sheets of Silica aerogel according to a NASA-patented approach. An active liquid nitrogen cooling system is integrated into the vessel. Gaseous hydrogen at ambient conditions enters the storage system and is physisorbed into the aerogel structure. The transient behavior (charge and discharge) as well as the dependency on the packaging density and storage pressure is investigated and presented as part of this paper.

Presenting Author: Marcel Otto University of Central Florida

Presenting Author Biography: yes

Authors:

Marcel Otto University of Central Florida
Yakym Khlyapov University of Central Florida
Erik Fernandez University of Central Florida
Joshua Schmitt Southwest Research Institute
Adam Swanger NASA Kennedy Space Center
Jayanta Kapat University of Central Florida