The research, led by Dr. Eric May, has taken ten years and the outcome could immeasurably benefit the chemicals industry, as well as commercial manufacturers who spend considerable sums in collecting waste gases. The outcome not only lowers costs and makes gas storage easier, it lowers the impact of atmospheric gases released into the general environment.
The experimental outcome is that energy-rich gases like hydrogen, methane, argon and nitrogen can be stored in a common minerals called zeolites. Zeolites are microporous, aluminosilicate (minerals composed of aluminium, silicon, and oxygen) materials, which form where volcanic rocks and ash layers react with alkaline groundwater. The minerals have a special ability to ability to selectively sort molecules based primarily on a size exclusion process.
As well as zeolite the gases can be stored in artificial, laboratory created materials called metal organic frameworks. The storage occurs as the minerals are cooled and the pressure is increased. At the appropriate time the gas stored can be released by heating the mineral. Temperature therefore acts as a gate, either closing off the gas or opening up to allow the gas to be released. The ten year process has centered on getting the temperature and pressure process right, which required quantum mechanical calculations.
As well as collecting waste gas, Professor Eric May thinks the invention could aid hydrogen cars. Quoted by ABC News, the researcher said: “But with these sorts of materials you could essentially store a similar amount of hydrogen but at low pressures just by keeping the material cool — and then when you needed to release it you could just warm it up slightly and that would be an easy way to drive clean-powered vehicles around.”
There is some further work to be done, although Professor May hopes to have a commercial product available within 18 months. The new discovery has been published in the journal Nature Communications. The research paper is titled “Temperature-regulated guest admission and release in microporous materials.”
