CO2 activation of olive bagasse for hydrogen storage

Abstract

Hydrogen is considered as the most promising future fuel, as its combustion generates only water vapor besides energy. However, finding efficient, safe and low‐cost storage methods is the basic impediment for the adoption of hydrogen as fuel. For this purpose, an ultramicroporous activated carbon was successfully synthesized from low‐cost biomass residues; olive bagasse. The carbon material was prepared throw physical activation, using carbon dioxide as activating agent, under controlled thermal conditions. Then, it was tested as hydrogen storage material at cryogenic and room temperature conditions. The textural characterizations showed a highly tailored porous texture adequate for gas adsorption. The totality of the created microporosity is of narrow range (d < 0.7 nm). Interestingly, the measured median pore width was about 0.65 nm, likely the optimum pore size for hydrogen adsorption. This feature accorded the AC with exceptional H2 storage capacity, achieving 3.34 wt % at liquid nitrogen temperature. It has outperformed Zeolites and MOFs. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 36: 315–324, 2017