Record-breaking Methane Storage System Derived From Corncobs

[phantom power]

I'm rather lukewarm toward methane as a widespread autofuel, mostly because there's not enough of it (unless we start manufacturing it from CO2), but this seems like a technology that will prove useful regardless. Storing high volumes of gas at lower pressures probably has implications for many applications other than auto fuel tanks.

Science Daily — Using corncob waste as a starting material, researchers have created carbon briquettes with complex nanopores capable of storing natural gas at an unprecedented density of 180 times their own volume and at one seventh the pressure of conventional natural gas tanks.

(...)

The briquettes are the first technology to meet the 180 to 1 storage to volume target set by the U.S. Department of Energy in 2000, a long-term goal of principal project leader Peter Pfeifer of MU.

"We are very excited about this breakthrough because it may lead to a flat and compact tank that would fit under the floor of a passenger car, similar to current gasoline tanks," said Pfeifer. "Such a technology would make natural gas a widely attractive alternative fuel for everyone."

(...)

Standard natural gas storage systems use high-pressure natural gas that has been compressed to a pressure of 3600 pounds per square inch and bulky tanks that can take up the space of an entire car trunk. The carbon briquettes contain networks of pores and channels that can hold methane at a high density without the cost of extreme compression, ultimately storing the fuel at a pressure of only 500 pounds per square inch, the pressure found in natural gas pipelines.



http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070220132230.htm

Heh. They're making Corn-holes. Hehheh.