Advanced Crystalline Porous Materials for Enhanced Hydrogen Isotope Separation and Transportation Applications

Advanced Crystalline Porous Materials for Enhanced Hydrogen Isotope Separation and Transportation Applications

 

 

 

Crystalline porous materials are a promising type of material for efficient hydrogen isotope separation. Their ordered porous structure provides ultra-high surface area, tunable porosity, and functionality, which makes them suitable for various applications such as gas storage, separation, biomedical applications, sensor technology, and catalysis. Two applications that show great potential for this structure are 1) hydrogen isotope separation by quantum sieving and 2) cryogenic crystalline adsorbent in LH2 transportation applications.

Part I: Separating gaseous mixtures that consist of similar particles is difficult in modern separation technology, especially isotope separation, due to shared size, shape, and thermodynamic properties. Quantum Sieving (QS) in confined spaces has received increased attention as an efficient method for hydrogen isotope separation. This presentation outlines the feasibility of using microporous frameworks as isotope sieves through experimental results obtained by low-pressure high-resolution isotherms and cryogenic thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS) directly on isotope mixtures. Various strategies for satisfying industrial requirements (e.g. working temperature or pressure) are introduced by exploiting the Gating, Breathing effect, or Specific Isotope-Responsive system.

Part II: Liquid hydrogen (LH2) has many benefits for the hydrogen infrastructure. Its high density allows for minimum distribution costs, and its high payload and short transfer times make for easy delivery logistics. However, using LH2 has a few challenges. Liquefying H2 is an energy-intensive process, and the setback distances are more stringent for LH2. Boil-off losses along the LH2 pathway may also occur. To overcome boil-off losses, a new approach is proposed that combines two storage technologies (hybrid; liquefaction at 20 K and cryo-adsorption). Experimental results show that cryo-adsorbed H2 density with specific adsorbent is more than the density of LH2 at 20 K, evidenced by observing the peak for solid H2 in neutron scattering analysis. In this talk, a new strategy for suppressing the boil-off loss is introduced by exploiting such a high adsorption density on the advanced porous materials.