High density energy storage using self-assembled materials

Many alternative fuels that may help slow down global warming suffer from technical barriers. Hydrogen and methane gas (also called 'natural gas') are both more environmentally friendly than gasoline, but contain very little energy per unit of volume. This video shows how self-assembled porous materials can lead to fuel tanks that are able to highly concentrate gaseous fuels and thus hold a lot of energy in a small space. Cutting edge algorithms and materials are depicted, drawing from research and development in the previous two years at Northwestern University in the Snurr and Hupp laboratories.

This video was created for the 2011 NSF International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge.

More information about this research can be found below:

Snurr Research Group
http://zeolites.cqe.northwestern.edu/

Hupp Research Group
http://chemgroups.northwestern.edu/hupp/

Chris Wilmer Research Page
http://www.chriswilmer.com/

We would like to thank the Initiative for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern (ISEN) and Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan for supporting this research. Computational resources for simulations were provided by the QUEST super computer at Northwestern University.

• Category

  Science & Technology

[Physics27]

I like this work but I have a question. How do you get the gas back out of the tank? How do you get the NU1 or any surface to give up the methane? I understand that dropping the presser or adding heat will make some gas come off the surface but will you really be able to get 80%- 90% of the gas back out of the tank at STP?

[Chris Wilmer]

Yes, you can really get more than 90% of the gas out of the tank by lowering the pressure back to ambient pressure. The adsorption/desorption is completely reversible with no hysteresis effects. Do you have access to Nature Chemistry? The experimental data is in our paper "Large-scale screening of hypothetical metal-organic frameworks" and it shows that once you are at STP, the methane is almost completely gone (Fig. 6).

[CMSSL4D2TF2LoL]

Alright, I'm interested. Considering the abundance of methane (especially when compared to fossil fuels), this could well be the future of automobile fuel.

Though I must ask: If you are going to use NU-100 methane tanks, how will the NU-100 be mass-produced and eventually put into a vehicle that rolls off the assembly line?

[Chris Wilmer]

Great question! Take a look at this video by the chemical company BASF which talks about the industrial scale manufacture of MOF materials (NU-100 is a MOF). The youtube video is entitled "Metal Organic Frameworks on an Industrial Scale." (Youtube won't let me post the link here for some reason)

[EthanNin0]

How much more methane can you fit in a gas tank?

It goes from saying a gas tank full of methane contains 1/1000 the energy as a tank full of gasoline to the surface area with NU 100. Does that mean you can fit 50,000,000x as much methane in a tank then?

[Chris Wilmer]

A tank with NU-100 will have 50,000,000x as many methane molecules stuck to a surface as an empty tank, but will have fewer methane molecules floating in empty space (simply because there is less empty space). The result is an increase in overall methane storage that is 100-1000x as much as tank with no NU-100 crystal (the exact amount depends on several factors like temperature and pressure - hard to convey all of the subtleties in a 5 minute movie!).

[Jomazi]

I wonder how heavy the NU100 matrix is in comparison to the methane, or in other words roughly what the actual methane content of a certain mass of fuel tank would be?

[Vítor Nunes]

Beatifull, I want to be your agent here in Portugal to sell this system

[Nikos Lamb]

why methane and no hydrogen?

[phishmeat702]

I like it ! That would change the game for anything consuming energy, not just car fuel .

[Guillermo Valle]

Lowering it back t ambient pressure? I thought that it was already at ambient pressure.Or do you mean lowering the pressure and then waiting for desorption to occur thus reaching ambient pressure again? In any case great idea and research. And also one of the best videos presenting research Ive seen! :)

[CMSSL4D2TF2LoL]

Thank you, and good luck with the application of your idea!

[Alquimista Yamato]

Bastante interesante saludos desde Colombia :)