![]() In a report in Nature News, Andrew Cooper and his colleagues at the University of Liverpool, UK, have found that they can trap methane in a bizarre material dubbed ”dry water”, a mixture of silica and water that looks and acts like a fine white powder. The researchers are monitoring the technology’s performance, from mileage data to measurements of the stability of the briquettes and have started work on the next generation of briquettes to store more at lower briquette production costs.ĭry Water - Composition Graphic - Time to Capacity It would be a unique opportunity to bring corn to the market for alternative fuels–corn kernels for ethanol production, and corncob for natural gas tanks.”Ī test pickup truck, part of a fleet of more than 200 natural gas vehicles operated by Kansas City, has been in use since mid-October. The state of Missouri alone could supply the raw material for more than 10 million cars per year. “The carbon briquettes are made from the cobs that remain after the kernels have been harvested. “Our project is the first time a carbon storage material has been made from corncobs, an abundantly available waste product in the Midwest,” said Pfeifer. Such a technology would make natural gas a widely attractive alternative fuel for everyone.” Pfeifer believes the absence of such a flatbed tank has been the principal reason why natural gas, which costs significantly less than gasoline and diesel and burns cleaner, is not yet widely used as a fuel for vehicles. Peter Pfeifer of MU says “We are very excited about this breakthrough because it may lead to a flat and compact tank that would fit under the floor of a passenger car, similar to current gasoline tanks. This has to be a cheap resource that has collection and transport costs before the processing into the briquettes. Currently they are usually just pitched out the back of the farmer’s combine as the kernels are harvested. The raw material is corncobs, the center cylinder of the corn plant that holds the kernels as they grow. 500 psi could be low enough to make more adaptive shapes. Intuitively, the low cost leader might be the University of Missouri-Columbia and Midwest Research Institute in Kansas City created carbon briquettes with complex nanopores capable of storing natural gas at an unprecedented density of 180 times their own volume and at one-seventh (about 500 psi) the pressure of conventional natural gas tanks. So, a more expensive tank can be expected, and to some as yet unknown extent, justified. With prices wavering about with such volatility and the vast differences from location to location for natural gas prices, an old number of natural gas being about 2/3rds or so the cost of gasoline or diesel can be used. The last aspect in the cost issue will be the difference between CNG, gasoline and diesel at fill up. As progress is made on Compressed Natural Gas tanks the cost will come down, but for today we’ll look at cost issues and volume effectiveness. The 20-gallon gas tank would only cost a few dollars. The next issue to address is the cost of tanks. With that in mind we can make some sense of the year’s research so far in new technologies for storage. Roughly speaking the USDOE number is 1/180 or so. The U.S Department of Energy has a storage goal stated as 180 v/v or standard temperature and pressure equivalent volume / volume of the absorbing material. They must be integrated early in design to avoid foregoing some other features. That’s when the volume within a vehicle becomes an issue. ![]() ![]() But when you get pressured up the tanks need cylindrical shapes with spherical ends to keep the materials used minimized so controlling the cost. The 20 gallon gasoline tank isn’t especially large and holding a liquid it can be molded to fit cavities so making good use of an available volume. Liquefied methane gets to 1/600 th the volume of free gas. Compression can get better than 1/100 th the volume. ![]() To get to the liquid state the compression is light, about 3.6 psi and cooled to –260 degrees F or -163 degrees C. The compression is usually to 3000 psi on up to 4000 psi. Today methane is simply compressed or compressed and chilled to a liquid state. With natural gas production growing, landfills getting “drilled” for methane and the sure to come list of new research on making methane from organics the question coming up for fuel cells, motorcycles, cars and just huge storage and transport for methane is going to come rushing at us and soon.
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