detailed in the journal Materials Today<\/a>, is such a departure from accepted wisdom on gas separation and storage that it had to be repeated 20 to 30 times before it could be believed.<\/p>\n\u201cWe were so surprised to see this happen, but each time we kept getting the exact same result, it was a eureka moment,\u201d said lead researcher Dr Srikanth Mateti.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no waste, the process requires no harsh chemicals and creates no by-products. \u2026This means you could store hydrogen anywhere and use it whenever it\u2019s needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
.re-mid-article {min-height:250px;}<\/p>\n
<\/ins>\n<\/p>\nThe breakthrough is the culmination of three decades of work led by Alfred Deakin Professor Ying (Ian) Chen, IFM\u2019s Chair of Nanotechnology, and his team.<\/p>\n
The hero ingredient in the breakthrough is boron nitride powder, which is has a knack for absorbing substances, being small, but with a large amount of surface area. It\u2019s also classed as a \u201clevel-0 chemical,\u201d something that is deemed perfectly safe to have in your house.<\/p>\n
The researchers put boron nitride powder into a ball mill \u2013 a type of grinder containing small stainless-steel balls in a chamber \u2013 along with the gases that need to be separated.<\/p>\n
As the chamber rotates at a higher and higher speed, the balls collide with the powder and the wall of the chamber triggers a mechanochemical reaction resulting in gas being absorbed into the powder.<\/p>\n
One type of gas is absorbed quicker, separating it out from the others, and allowing it to be easily removed from the mill. The process can be repeated over several stages to separate the gases one by one.<\/p>\n
All up, the process consumes 76.8 KJ\/s to store and separate 1000L of gases, which means it uses at least 90 per cent less than the current gas separation process commonly used in the petroluem industry.<\/p>\n
Even more significantly, once the gas is absorbed into the powder it gas can be transported safely and easily. When the gas is needed, the powder can be simply heated in a vacuum to release the gas unchanged.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe current way of storing hydrogen is in a high-pressure tank, or by cooling the gas down to a liquid form. Both require large amounts of energy, as well as dangerous processes and chemicals,\u201d said Professor Chen.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe show there\u2019s mechanochemical alternative, using ball milling to store gas in the nanomaterial at room temperature. It doesn\u2019t require high pressure or low temperatures, so it would offer a much cheaper and safer way to develop things like hydrogen powered vehicles.<\/p>\n
The next step for the IFM team is to gather industry support and scale the process up to a full pilot. A provisional patent application has been submitted for the process.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to further validate this method with industry to develop a practical application,\u201d Professor Chen said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo move this from the laboratory to a larger industry scale we need to verify that this process is cost saving, more efficient, and quicker than traditional methods of gas separation and storage.\u201d<\/p>\n
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