Containerless Natural Gas Storage

This 4” proof-of-concept prototype is representative of a shape that is not available with conventional tanks.

Today’s natural gas (NG) vehicles use bulky SRI is developing a safe, fuel tanks that provide medium driving range. To enable widespread adoption of NG fueled low-pressure conformable vehicles, SRI is developing NG storage tanks natural gas tank for using proprietary porous carbon sorbent produced by ATMI, Inc. The carbon stores light-duty vehicles. natural gas at low-pressure by adsorption, and has enough structural integrity to act Benefits as the pressurized container in a system SRI’s technology offers several advantages designed by SRI. to vehicle gas storage systems, including:

••Safety: Reduced NG pressure increases safety and reduces the complexity and cost of fueling

••Design flexibility: Easy shape formation allows designers to seamlessly integrate tanks into vehicle design without sacrificing passenger or trunk space

••Low fuel cost: Compressed NG can cost half as much per gallon as gasoline, saving drivers hundreds or thousands of dollars a year

••Energy security: Increased use of underutilized

Image courtesy of GM domestic fuels can reduce imports of foreign oil

Today’s vehicles, such as the one pictured above, incorporate the gasoline and make consumers less vulnerable to price shocks tanks into their overall design. In the future, vehicle designers will also be able to integrate SRI’s conformable ANG tanks into passenger cars. ••Environment: NG vehicles produce about 40% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than gasoline-powered SRI’s containerless adsorbed natural gas (ANG) vehicles throughout the fuel life cycle technology is expected to provide a safe, low- ••Convenience: NG storage at comparable or pressure, high-density, conformable storage lower weight and smaller size than conventional system that enables cost-effective home refilling compressed gas tanks of NG vehicles.

Thick Walled Next Steps Pressure Vessel Epoxy- SRI’s work is funded under ARPA-E’s Methane Coated Sorbent Opportunities for Vehicular Energy (MOVE) Program. Bars Thin- SRI has already proved the pressure capabilities of a Walled Vessel containerless device in small samples and has begun to scale up the adsorbent units. At the conclusion of Sorbent the project in early 2014, SRI will have built and tested a Granules proof-of-concept system. We seek industry partners to Conventional Design SRI’s Proof- of-Concep t Desig n further develop this promising technology. S

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Acknowledgment: The information, data or work presented herein was funded in part by the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), U.S. Department of Energy, under Award Number DE-AR0000250.

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