Hydrogen Storage in a Pressure Swing Reactor – Development of a Continuous Reactor Design.

Dürr S, Wagner L, Preuster P, Wasserscheid P (2019)

Publication Language: English

Publication Type: Conference contribution, Original article

Publication year: 2019

Event location: Max-Planck-Institut für Dynamik komplexer technischer Systeme, Sandtorstraße 39106 Magdeburg DE

Abstract

Hydrogen storage via reversible catalytic hydrogenation and dehydrogenation of Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carrier (LOHC) molecules such as dibenzyltoluene, has outgrown laboratory scale setups. LOHC storage systems now are commercially available and prove to be a safe and practical solution for hydrogen storage. [1]

A state of the art LOHC-system intended for hydrogen transport comprises separate hydrogenation and dehydrogenation units: One at the site of hydrogen production and another one on the site of hydrogen demand. However, it was recently shown that both reactions can be implemented in a simple one-reactor setup using only one Pt-catalyst. [2,3] Consequently, given an adequately high temperature, the reaction mode can be set to hydrogenation or dehydrogenation by applying the appropriate pressure. This provides for a highly dynamic, more cost- and energy efficient plant design for scenarios in which no transport is intended.

Moving from semi-batch to continuous mode offers several advantages such as more efficient noble metal use and separate scaling of capacity and maximum input/output rate of hydrogen. In this flow-battery-like setup, capacity solely depends on tank size while maximum hydrogen flow is determined by reactor design. Thus the combination of a compact, high-performance reactor and cost-effective, refillable tanks allows highly flexible solutions for a variety of hydrogen storage and supply scenarios.

To account for the reaction enthalpies of both reactions our oneReactor concept is based on a shell-and-tube heat exchanger design. Multiple catalyst containing, vertical tube reactors are employed in co- or counter-current trickle-bed mode. Since frequent change from hydrogenation to dehydrogenation mode and varying reaction times lead to differing feed compositions, a liquid loop is applied to obtain a more stable mode of operation.

In this poster presentation we show the feasibility of the oneReactor-concept as well as first experimental results. Furthermore examples of system integration in both energy-storage and hydrogen supply will be discussed.

[1] Preuster, P., et al. (2017). “Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carriers (LOHCs): “Toward a Hydrogen-Free Hydrogen Economy,”  ACCOUNTS OF CHEMICAL RESEARCH 50 (1): 74-85

[2] Jorschick, J., et al. (2017). “Hydrogen Storage Using a Hot Pressure Swing Reactor,” ENERGY & ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE 10 (1): 1652-1659

[3] Jorschick, J., et al. (2018). “Operational Stability of a LOHC-based Hot Pressure Swing Reactor for Hydrogen Storage,” ENERGY TECHNOLOGY 10.1002/ente.201800499, (early access)

Authors with CRIS profile

Stefan Dürr Lehrstuhl für Strömungsmechanik Lisa Wagner Lehrstuhl für Chemische Reaktionstechnik Peter Wasserscheid Lehrstuhl für Chemische Reaktionstechnik

Involved external institutions

Forschungszentrum Jülich / Research Centre Jülich (FZJ) DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Dürr, S., Wagner, L., Preuster, P., & Wasserscheid, P. (2019). Hydrogen Storage in a Pressure Swing Reactor – Development of a Continuous Reactor Design. In Proceedings of the 1st INTERNATIONAL YOUNG PROFESSIONALS CONFERENCE ON PROCESS ENGINEERING (YCOPE 2019). Max-Planck-Institut für Dynamik komplexer technischer Systeme, Sandtorstraße 39106 Magdeburg, DE.

MLA:

Dürr, Stefan, et al. "Hydrogen Storage in a Pressure Swing Reactor – Development of a Continuous Reactor Design." Proceedings of the 1st INTERNATIONAL YOUNG PROFESSIONALS CONFERENCE ON PROCESS ENGINEERING (YCOPE 2019), Max-Planck-Institut für Dynamik komplexer technischer Systeme, Sandtorstraße 39106 Magdeburg 2019.

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