Novel method to store gases, yes and also hydrogen

It is well known that the storage and transport of hydrogen is a serious drawback for its use in sustainable energy generation activities. The manipulation must be carried out at high pressures and low temperatures, and this is complex and expensive.

Not long ago people from Deikin University ( Australia ) published a study in Materials Today in which they explain a new method to separate and store gases in a simple, efficient and economical way. And it can be applied (among other things) to hydrogen storage as well.

The process has a special component that is boron nitride. Simply explained: boron nitride powder is placed in a circular drum, along with steel balls. The gas is introduced, and the drum is rotated so that the steel balls collide with the boron nitride powder. These micro-shocks cause the boron nitride to absorb the gas particles, without decomposing the gas.

This powder with gas particles incorporated, as for example in the case of hydrogen, can be handled at normal temperatures and pressure, so it can be transported and stored without the need for expensive infrastructure.

When it is desired to obtain the gas again, the powder is heated in a vacuum environment and the gases are evolved. In this way what you have is the gas (for example hydrogen) on the one hand and the boron nitride powder on the other. And what is better is that this powder can be reused up to 50 times to repeat the same operations over and over again.

Apparently the process is most interesting. It so surprised the researchers themselves that they had to repeat it more than 20 times to make sure that what was happening was true. Because its applications, in addition to hydrogen, can be used for many other gases.

An informative video can be seen at: https://youtu.be/lBzIL8E4JP0

The industry consumes a lot of energy to separate gases within the production processes, and this process could save up to 90% of that consumption. And this represents an important part of the energy that we consume today throughout the world.

The researchers at Deikin University are to be congratulated, because they did not achieve this by chance. As they say, they have been researching in the world of nano-materials and mecha-chemistry for more than 30 years. Important discoveries never happen by chance, and they always come after a lot of work.

It is hoped that these results materialize with the additional tests that are necessary, and that the world of industry contributes its participation to industrialize this process and be able to bring it to reality as soon as possible.

Separating gases easily and cheaply is essential. And the world needs a simple transportation and storage system for hydrogen.

If the results, as the researchers indicate in their publication, are positive, there could be a simple and cheap way of handling hydrogen for its transport and storage, which could make a very important qualitative leap for its industrial use.

This would represent a very important change to be able to use hydrogen as a non-polluting fuel without the drawbacks it now has.

Hopefully we will see results very soon.