This Small Business Technology Transfer Phase I project will create a fuel storage system for natural gas using adsorbent technology. This adsorbed natural gas (ANG) technology will allow this all-composite, conformable, lower pressure system to hold equivalent amounts of natural gas as high-pressure, compressed natural gas counterparts. Existing tanks, which must be cylindrical in shape, occupy cargo space in vehicles. Operation at low pressures will allow for conformable tanks to be placed more strategically, allowing more payload capacity. The technical objectives of the project are 1) to produce a sorbent material with adsorption of >150V/V with the ability to desorb gas to supply the demands of a vehicle, 2) to enhance and optimize the permeability and inter-laminar fracture toughness of the composite material used in the ANG tanks, 3) to develop the process for manufacturing a lightweight, all-composite, ANG tank. The results of these tasks will be combined to produce a useable fuel system with the required capacity. A final project goal is to meet 50-70% of the Department of Energy's cost and performance metrics for tanks. The funding will allow for design validation of the concept, production of prototypes, and initial testing procedures for a minimal viable product.
The broader impact/commercial potential of this project will allow for two major breakthroughs in the natural gas vehicle industry. The first is to provide a conformable fuel storage tank, which can directly replace the original equipment manufacturer's fuel systems. In addition to providing a safer, more adaptable fueling system; this technology will more importantly allow for natural gas infrastructure to grow rapidly, by significantly reducing the cost of the fueling infrastructure. The lowering the operating pressure will permit the fueling of vehicles off a single compressor, versus the currently-used three-stage system. This will save valuable energy and reduce operating costs, allowing for rapid deployment and expansion. This technology could allow for home fueling modules for natural gas vehicles to be more affordable and effective. Providing easier access to natural gas for consumers will help create a more energy-independent America and will lead to healthier living conditions.
In this project significant progress was made with respect to the fields of composite pressure vessel design & fabrication, and natural gas storage. This project yielded a new category of vessel with the all-composite liner-less tank with an adsorbent core. The tank maufacturing process developed for this project combined two previously seperate storage techniques to form the most advanced natural gas storage tank created to date. This development has set a precedence for adsorbed natural gas storage vessels, that composte materials can be used rather that heavy extruded metal containers. The implications of this shift will create an entirely new design methodology for adsorbed natural gas storage sytems which will impact the global natural gas vehicle industry in unprecedented ways. This project is likely to have a lasting impact on a variety of fields including materials science and engineering, petroleum engineering, energy storage, but not limited to industrial gas storage, life support systems, and hydrogen storage. These fields all suffer from the same drawbacks of the containers being heavy, bulky and not having adequate storage capacity. The results of this project did not just yield a product, but a platform technology which can be adapted to countless fields of interest related to the high pressure storage of gases.? The technology created through this project will have a transformational on the US and global vehicular energy landscape. The products created will bring the use of natual gas as vehicular fuel from niche fleet applications to main stream consumer applications. This technology will help to reduce the enviromental impact of current vehicluar emissions by enabling widespread use of the cleaner, more abundant, and domestically produced natural gas. The use of this technology will also enable the development of the US natural gas fueling station infrastructure by reducing the costs associated with installation. An all-composite, lightweight, adsorbed natural gas (ANG) tank would solve many problems associated with the U.S. converting to a natural gas powered transportation sector. CleanNG's successful ANG composite tank would increase the current mileage range by 30% or reduce operating pressure by 84%, while reducing the weight of the tank shell by 71% for the same cost per mile range. By taking current knowledge of ANG and combining all the good aspects of the known technologies, a useable fuel system can be created to enable OEM's to directly replace existing fuel tanks with the MagmaCel AD tanks. The low pressure has the added benefit of using low cost compressors for an inexpensive home refueling station. The market data suggests that the market is in its infancy and with steadily rising gasoline and diesel costs the value proposition of natural gas vehicles will become increasingly more appealing. As natural gas vehicles become more attractive in the medium and light duty applications, meeting the very aggressive metrics set forth by the DOE and further developing as well as commercializing the technology from this phase 1 project is vital to the success of the natural gas vehicle industry as a whole.
