Experimental studies of storage by adsorption of domestically used natural gas on activated carbon

Abstract

Experiments were designed for developing domestically used natural gas storage vessels. Adsorption data of methane on the activated carbon having SBET = 2074 m2/g was volumetrically measured. Storage vessels in net volume 1.5 L and filled with 700 g activated carbon were employed for dynamic characteristic tests. It shows that a relative error from Toth equation prediction is less than 0.07%. At the flow rate 15 L/min, by circulating water around the central of storage vessels and charging/discharging the gas through a perforated tube, the maximum fluctuation of temperature can be respectively reduced to 15 °C and 10 °C, and the charged/discharged amount can correspondingly be increased about 14.2% and 4.4%. However, the highest temperature in the center is independent of the temperature of the cooling water within the range 10°C–30 °C. Discharged amounts accumulated at 15 L/min increase in the temperature of the heating water from 30 °C to 70 °C, but the total discharged amounts nearly remain the same. It suggests that domestically used ANG vessels can utilize running water as a coolant or the supplemental heat to manage the thermal effect. Optimization of the arrangement of heat exchanging pipes and the charge/discharge ports is required to have a successful design of a storage vessel.