Adsorbed methane storage for vehicular applications

The methane storage properties of five benchmark high surface area adsorbent materials were studied at ambient temperature and up to 250 bar service pressure. Using adsorption and sample density data, we evaluated the potential of these materials to store methane in a 110 L pressure vessel. At 50 bar, the adsorbent materials significantly outperformed traditional compressed gas storage. Two materials, an activated carbon and a copper based metal-organic framework (Cu-BTC), also showed improvement over compressed gas storage at 250 bar. Driving ranges calculated from storage data show that with an adsorbent, a 110 L tank filled to 50 bar could have a driving range of up to 140 miles, more than three times the range offered by a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle when operating as a pure battery electric vehicle.