Experimental investigation of methane storage employing adsorption technique

• Main Author: Tan, Michelle Yan Ling.
• Other Authors: School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/53580
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

In this project, gas adsorption between methane and activated carbon adsorbent are studied to determine the best experimental isotherm fit with various isotherms models. A cryostat was designed and fabricated for this project to aid in the study of methane storage using adsorption technique under cryogenic conditions. In this experiment, a micro-porous activated carbon, Maxsorb III is being used as the adsorbent material and methane is used as the adsorbate gas. Chapter One gives a brief introduction about the impact of the increase in emission of methane on the macro environment and the purpose of this experimental investigation. Various studies on adsorption technique with different adsorbents are reviewed in Chapter two. Chapter three presents the two types of adsorption, mainly Physisorption and Chemisorption and the theory which is behind it. Material characterization for adsorbate and adsorbent is written in the subsequent chapter. The cryostat device is designed to examine the adsorption performance of adsorbate and adsorbent framework in cryogenic ambience as well as to provide a reference to adsorption isotherm application. Chapter five introduces the experimental apparatus needed and the experimental setup is presented for ease of operation. The experimental preparation procedures have to be carried out before the start of the experiment such as evacuation of the cryostat and the liquid nitrogen transfer line. Evacuation is done by a vacuum pump to remove any unwanted air or gas particles. The pressure changes in the system are observed and recorded during the experiment and these data are then being reduced into uptake results using ideal gas law. Two isotherms such as Langmuir and Dubinin-Astakhov isotherm are used in this project to model the experimental data. Overall, this project has been a successful one with all the objectives being fulfilled and the results obtained show the methane adsorption is able to fit the Tόth isotherm model.