RE: nice development21 Apr 2020 19:03
Seaangler, Just a snippet from the article I received on Saturday, it doesn't answer your question directly but from it you can appreciate the impact it can have ............ the gas (talking about hydrogen) is stored at high pressure, around 700 bar, so cars can carry 4-5kg of the gas and travel up to 500km before refilling.
That level of pressure is around 300 times greater than in a car's tyres, and necessitates specially made tanks, all of which add to the cost of the vehicles.Now researchers believe they have developed an alternative method that would allow the storage of high volumes of hydrogen under much lower pressure.
The team have designed a highly porous new material, described as a metal-organic framework.
The product, with the glamorous name of NU-1501, has been built from organic molecules and metal ions which self-assemble to form highly crystalline, porous frameworks.
"It's like a bath sponge but with very ordered cavities," said Prof Omar Farha, from Northwestern University in the US who led the research.
"With a sponge, if you spill water and you wipe it, in order to reuse the sponge, you squeeze it.
"With this material we use the same thing - we use pressure to store and release these gas molecules."
"So, it works exactly like a bath sponge except in a very smart programmed way."
The key ability of the new framework is that it can potentially store hydrogen and other gases at much lower pressures while not needing an enormous tank.
"We can store tremendous amounts of hydrogen and methane within the pores of the metal-organic framework and deliver them to the engine of the vehicle at lower pressures than needed for current fuel cell vehicle," Prof Farha said.
His team have gained experience in developing these adsorbent materials for the US Department of Defence, to protect soldiers against nerve gas attacks,
The researchers say there is now funding available to develop this type of material for transport applications.
The new material has already beaten tough targets set by the US Department of Energy for on board storage and delivery systems for alternative fuels.
But to go further, the scientists will need significant buy-in from car manufacturers.
The research has been published in the journal, Science.
Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc.
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