Anisotropic storage medium development in a full-scale, sodium alanate-based, hydrogen storage system

Scott W. Jorgensen, Terry A. Johnson, E. Andrew Payzant, Hassina Z. Bilheux

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

Deuterium desorption in an automotive-scale hydrogen storage tube was studied in-situ using neutron diffraction. Gradients in the concentration of the various alanate phases were observed along the length of the tube but no significant radial anisotropy was present. In addition, neutron radiography and computed tomography showed large scale cracks and density fluctuations, confirming the presence of these structures in an undisturbed storage system. These results demonstrate that large scale storage structures are not uniform even after many absorption/desorption cycles and that movement of gaseous hydrogen cannot be properly modeled by a simple porous bed model. Furthermore, the evidence indicates that there is slow transformation of species at one end of the tube indicating loss of catalyst functionality. These observations explain the unusually fast movement of hydrogen in a full scale system and shows that loss of capacity is not occurring uniformly in this type of hydrogen-storage system.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)13557-13574
Number of pages18
JournalInternational Journal of Hydrogen Energy
Volume41
Issue number31
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 17 2016

Funding

A portion of this research at ORNL's High Flux Isotope Reactor and Spallation Neutron Source, was sponsored by the Scientific User Facilities Division, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, US Department of Energy , and by the Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Office of Vehicle Technologies , as part of the HTML User Program, Oak Ridge National Laboratory . Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000 .

Keywords

  • Catalyzed desorption
  • Hydrogen storage
  • Neutron computed tomography
  • Neutron diffraction
  • Sodium alanate
  • Vehicle scale

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