The use of liquid organic hydrides for seasonal electricity storage and H2-powered vehicles
Tyndall Research Theme 2 - Decarbonising Modern Societies
Project ID - TRS/09
Technical Summary
The use of hydrogen for automotive power has been studied for many years and is made attractive by its potential unlimited availability and its low emissions. The main obstacles to the use of hydrogen in road vehicles have been, and remain, the storage of hydrogen on board the vehicle, hydrogen handling, the hydrogen distribution network and cost.
A number of storage systems have been extensively studied, such as compressed hydrogen, liquid hydrogen, metallic and organic hydrides, ammonia and water. For various reasons such as safety, overall energy considerations and fuel handling, compressed of liquid hydrogen are unlikely to be seriously considered in future applications. The same applies for ammonia and water, since they require excessively high temperature for dissociation. Therefore, only hydrogen storage in the form of metallic or organic hydrides shows long term potential. Whilst both have substantial hydrogen storage capacities (60 to 70 kg. H2/ tonne container) and moderate energy densities (7-8.5 MJ/kg. container) in comparison with petrol or diesel oil (40 MJ/kg. container), they require considerable thermal energies to release the hydrogen. This is likely to be the single most important factor determining the feasibility of any form of hydrogen carrier system in automotive applications.
The investigation of organic hydrides, such as the MTH system, as potential hydrogen carriers in automotive applications was first proposed by Sultan and Shaw as early as 1975:
At the hydrogenation plant
H2 source: 3H2 + C7H8 =» C7H14 +215kJ/mol MCH
On the vehicle
H2 user: C7H14 =» C7H8 + 3H2 -215kJ/mol MCH
This research is supported through a Tyndall Research Studentship.
Student: Dimos Tsakiris
Institution: Department of Chemical Engineering, UMIST
Lead Supervisor: Dr Arthur Garforth
Dates: January 2003 - December 2005
Collaborating
organisation: includes the Engelhard Corporation and the UMIST Chemical Engineering Department
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