In a pathway toward sustainable energy, natural gas is an excellent transitional fuel to displace coal, resulting in lower net carbon... Show moreIn a pathway toward sustainable energy, natural gas is an excellent transitional fuel to displace coal, resulting in lower net carbon emissions. Thus natural gas is becoming one of the major resources of energy in near future. One of the key challenges to transport natural gas and use it in transportation industry, is how to store methane in a safe and cheap way. Adsorbed natural gas on porous material has been studied as a better storage method than compressed natural gas, because it requires the lower pressure (500 psig versus 3000 psig) and lower capital and maintenance costs. However, increasing methane storage capacity is still remaining as a major challenge. In the present work, different activated carbons were used and experimental methane adsorption and desorption runs have been conducted. Methane isotherm was obtained at 293.15 K at different pressures. Furthermore, the overall adsorption and desorption rate were calculated during adsorption and desorption procedures. The effect of the surface area and particle size distribution were also studied. After eight successive adsorption and desorption tests using activated carbons at different pressures, no change in the material capacity was observed. Our experimental results show that the adsorption capacity of activated carbon particles will be increased using smaller particles with wide particle size distribution. This is mainly due to accumulation of smaller particles in space between large particles which in turn increase total material available for adsorption in a specific volume. M.S. in Chemical Engineering, December 2013 Show less
