Higher methane storage at low pressure and room temperature in new easily scalable large-scale production activated carbon for static and vehicular applications

• Published in: Fuel (Guildford) Vol. 104; pp. 813 - 821
• Main Authors: Policicchio, Alfonso, Maccallini, Enrico, Agostino, Raffaele Giuseppe, Ciuchi, Federica, Aloise, Alfredo, Giordano, Girolamo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01.02.2013; Elsevier
• Subjects: Activated carbon; Adsorption; Applied sciences; Energy; Energy. Thermal use of fuels; Exact sciences and technology; Fuels; Natural gas; Reversible methane storage; Room temperature; Adsorption; Reversible methane storage; Activated carbon; Natural gas; Room temperature; Measurement; Methane; Evaluation; Scanning electron microscopy; Helium; Density; Langmuir isotherm; Characterization; Accuracy; Storage; Low pressure; Surface properties; Measurement method; Surface area; X ray diffractometry; Performance; Comparative study; Low temperature
• ISSN: 0016-2361; 1873-7153
• DOI: 10.1016/j.fuel.2012.07.035

[Display omitted] ► High Surface Activated Carbon for methane physisortpion. ► Fully reversible methane storage at ambient condition. ► Simple, cheap and effective synthesis process. ► Suitable for automotive application. The methane adsorption properties of High Surface Activated Carbon (HSAC) samples were evaluated at room temperature (298K) and pressure up to 3.5MPa using a new optimized volumetric apparatus f-PcT (fast Pressure–concentration–Temperature) for accurate and reliable gas adsorption measurements. A comprehensive characterization of different activated carbon samples was carried out by means of helium picnometry for the skeletal density evaluation, by the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) method for the measurement of the surface area, by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and X-ray Diffraction (XRD) for topography and long-range order estimation, respectively. All the adsorption data were evaluated by Langmuir/Tóth isotherm model with a very high accuracy. Comparison with data available in the literature shows a good agreement in terms of maximum methane uptake on similar materials and an enhanced performance for the reversible adsorption at very low pressure. In fact, the probed HSAC samples show both higher methane storage values for pressure up to 1.5MPa and totally reversible methane uptake up to many cycles without any treatment in between. Furthermore, their adsorption properties are stable also after air exposure. These results represent the starting point for a real and efficient alternative method to the natural gas storage for static and/or automotive applications.