The Performance of Commercial Activated Carbon Absorbent for Adsorbed Natural Gas Storage

Storage of natural gas by adsorption or called Adsorbed Natural Gas (ANG) has the potential to replace Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) in mobile storage applications, such as in vehicles. ANG storage at moderate pressure around 3.5 to 4.2 MPa could be expected to reduce the problem of bulky storage within a confined space of high-pressure CNG storage used in vehicle. In adsorptive storage, the amount of gas stored in the vessel is enhanced when a large portion of gas adsorbs on the adsorbent and thus lowering the storage pressure. Commercial activated carbon adsorbent was conducted to determine the storage capacity and delivery performance of the ANG storage. The adsorptive storage test was carried out under dynamic condition to resemble storage behavior during filling and discharging. The 0.5 liter pressurized vessel used to store methane is charged up to 3.5 MPa and then brought down to atmospheric pressure to discharge the stored gas. Both filling and discharging process is done at varied flow rates. The results shown that the ANG storage experienced significant thermal changes during adsorption and desorption of the gas therefore affected the storage performance. The rate of filling and discharging is influence the system thermal behavior and results in capacity loss.