Hydrogen storage using a hot pressure swing reactor

Abstract

Our contribution demonstrates that hydrogen storage in stationary Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carrier (LOHC) systems becomes much simpler and significantly more efficient if both, the LOHC hydrogenation and the LOHC dehydrogenation reaction are carried out in the same reactor using the same catalyst. The finding that the typical dehydrogenation catalyst for hydrogen release from perhydro dibenzyltoluene (H18-DBT), Pt on alumina, turns into a highly active and very selective dibenzyltoluene hydrogenation catalyst at temperatures above 220°C paves the way for our new hydrogen storage concept. Herein, hydrogenation of H0-DBT and dehydrogenation of H18-DBT is carried out at the same elevated temperature between 290 and 310°C with hydrogen pressure being the only variable for shifting the equilibrium between hydrogen loading and release. We demonstrate that the heat of hydrogenation can be provided at a temperature level suitable for effective dehydrogenation catalysis. Combined with a heat storage device of appropriate capacity or a high pressure steam system, this heat could be used for dehydrogenation.