Hydrogen Storage Capacity of Tetrahydrofuran and Tetra- N -Butylammonium Bromide Hydrates Under Favorable Thermodynamic Conditions

An experimental study was conducted to evaluate the feasibility of employing binary hydrates as a medium for H 2 storage. Two reagents, tetrahydrofuran (THF) and tetra- n -butylammonium bromide (TBAB), which had been reported previously to have potential to form binary hydrates with H 2 under favorable conditions (i.e., low pressures and high temperatures), were investigated using differential scanning calorimetry and Raman spectroscopy. A scale-up facility was employed to quantify the hydrogen storage capacity of THF binary hydrate. Gas chromatography (GC) and pressure drop analyses indicated that the weight percentages of H 2 in hydrate were less than 0.1%. The major conclusions of this investigation were: (1) H 2 can be stored in binary hydrates at relatively modest pressures and temperatures which are probably feasible for transportation applications; and (2) the storage capacity of H 2 in binary hydrate formed from aqueous solutions of THF over a concentration range extending from 2.78 to 8.34 mol % and at temperatures above 263 K and pressures below 11 MPa was <0.1 wt %.