Artificial clathrates for safe storage, transport, and delivery of hydrogen (ARCLATH)
: Johan Martens (coordinator, KULeuven), Sara Bals (UAntwerpen), Pegie Cool (UAntwerpen), Joeri Denayer (VUB), Silvia Lenaerts (UAntwerpen), Pascal Van Der Voort (UGent), Veronique Van Speybroeck (UGent), Johan Verbeeck (UAntwerpen), and Sammy Verbruggen (UAntwerpen).
€ 1,474,775
€ 1,474,775
Arclath (Artificial clathrates for safe storage, transport, and delivery of hydrogen) is a sprint CSBO project that ran from March 2019 to November 2021 as part of the Moonshot initiative's energy innovation research project (MOT4). This programme is funded by the Flemish Government with the aim of using innovative research to encourage breakthrough technologies that reduce the carbon intensity of the Flemish industry. Specifically, the MOT4 track focuses on the huge carbon emissions resulting from energy consumption in the energy-intensive sector. The Catalisti and Flux50 spearhead clusters are working closely together on this.
The global rollout of hydrogen as an energy vector is hampered by the lack of an energy-efficient and safe way to store and transport hydrogen gas. Hydrogen is usually as a compressed gas (compression) or as a liquid (liquefaction). The high pressures required for compression, typically between 350 and 700 bar, require energy and costly pressure-resistant installations. The liquefaction of hydrogen occurs at -253 °C, making it very energy-intensive. Our research has uncovered an alternative storage technology, namely the adsorption of hydrogen molecules in clathrate hydrates. Clathrate hydrates, or clathrates for short, are ice-related materials composed of a sequence of water molecules (Figure 1). The structure of these materials consists of cages just large enough to store small molecules such as methane, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen. The formation of hydrogen clathrates by cooling water in the presence of hydrogen gas requires very high pressure of above 2000 bars, making practical application impossible.
The ARCLATH project aims to enable hydrogen storage in clathrates at practical pressures by stabilising the clathrates. Specifically, this involves the development of porous materials that influence the kinetics and thermodynamics of clathrate formation (Figure 2). In this way, the ARCLATH consortium has succeeded in storing ≈ 3 weight% hydrogen in a clathrate hydrate at 60 bar and a temperature of -3 °C. This amount corresponds to the amount of hydrogen stored in a pressure vessel of the same volume at 350 bar. The development of new porous matrix materials will allow the synthesis of new clathrate structures with ever-increasing hydrogen storage capacity (Figure 3).
At the same time, the ARCLATH II follow-up project also envisages scaling up the experiments and developing processes and storage reservoirs to translate the results obtained into a practical application. The potential impact of ARCLATH is significant, as it can solve an existing technology gap. The safety, energy efficiency, and environmental friendliness of clathrate technology compared with the transport of hydrogen in the form of ammonia and hydrogenated polyaromatic hydrocarbons make the technology potentially applicable everywhere. Clathrates can help with public acceptance and the entry of hydrogen technology.
Figure 1. Environmentally friendly hydrogen clathrate hydrate on a palm that heats up and melts.
Figure 2: Electron microscopy image of two porous materials developed as part of the ARCLATH.
Figure 3: Volumetric and gravimetric storage capacity of hydrogen storage technologies. The green arrow indicates the potential of hydrogen clathrates and ice structures.