Hydrogen Storage in Propane-Hydrate: Theoretical and Experimental Study

Abstract

There have been studies on gas-phase promoter facilitation of H2-containing clathrates. In the present study, non-equilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) simulations were conducted to analyse hydrogen release and uptake from/into propane planar clathrate surfaces at 180–273 K. The kinetics of the formation of propane hydrate as the host for hydrogen as well as hydrogen uptake into this framework was investigated experimentally using a fixed-bed reactor. The experimental hydrogen storage capacity propane hydrate was found to be around 1.04 wt% in compare with the theoretical expected 1.13 wt% storage capacity of propane hydrate. As a result, we advocate some limitation of gas-dispersion (fixed-bed) reactors such as the possibility of having un-reacted water as well as limited diffusion of hydrogen in the bulk hydrate.

Keywords

• hydrogen storage
• hydrogen/propane hydrate
• molecular dynamics
• cage occupancy