A Sievert-type PCT equipment for studies of gas (H2, CH4, CO2 etc) absorbing storage materials

氢用于燃料电池和燃烧，有望成为提高能源效率、能源可持续性、能源安全、减少温室气体和城市污染的少数长期解决方案之一。然而，氢气的生产和适当的储存一直是科学家和工程师面临的挑战。由于氢是一种气体，目前需要压缩到高压（几百个大气压）和专门设计的储罐来储存它。储罐和压缩过程都是昂贵的，并且涉及一些安全风险。另一种方法是使用固体材料，这种材料可以吸收氢气并在需要时释放氢气。这些材料的一个例子包括固体，如MgH2， LaNi5H, NaAlH4。因此，一个罐（任何大小）都可以充满像LaNi5H这样的粉末，并通过引入加压氢气来“充电”氢气，并通过（通常）加热和降低压力来“排出”氢气。一种实用的候选材料应该满足以下重要要求：A)良好的氢固重量比，b)快速的吸收/解吸过程，c)良好的充放电循环寿命，d)成本效益。各种研究机构，特别是美国能源部，已经为上述每一项要求定义了精确和定量的目标目标。目前，还没有达到预期目标的材料，因此需要大量的研究工作来开发适合储存氢的材料。这包括合成新材料和测量上述性能。一般来说，这些特性的测定不是一项微不足道的任务，需要最先进的设备，必须谨慎而明智地进行。本提案要求NSERC资助购买气体吸收设备，使我们的实验室能够进行最先进的测量。该设备将被UBC的几个研究小组使用。除了储氢应用之外，它还将用于制氢研究人员，他们研究用于制氢反应器的各种不同的合金基膜。

Hydrogen for use in fuel cells and combustion provides the promise of being one of the few long-term solutions to the improvement of energy efficiency, energy sustainability, energy security and the reduction of greenhouse gases and urban pollution. Production and proper storage of hydrogen, however, are on-going challenges for scientists and engineers. Because hydrogen is a gas, compression to high pressures (a few hundred atmospheric pressure) and specially designed tanks are currently required for its storage. Both the tank and compression process are expensive and involve some safety risks. An alternative method is to use solid materials which can absorb hydrogen and release it upon demand. An example of these materials include solids such as MgH2, LaNi5H, NaAlH4. A canister (of any size) can thus be filled with a powder like LaNi5H and be "charged" with hydrogen by introducing pressurized hydrogen and "discharged" by (typically) applying some heat and lowering the pressure. A practical candidate material should meet these important requirements: a) good hydrogen to solid weight ratio, b) fast absorption/desorption processes, c) good charge/discharge cycling life and d) cost effective. Various research organization, notably the US Department of Energy, have defined precise and quantitative target goals for each of the above requirements. Currently, there is no material which meets the desired targets, thus there is a tremendous research effort to develop materials which are suitable for storing hydrogen. This includes synthesizing new materials and measuring the above mentioned properties. Determination of these properties in general is not a trivial task and requires state-of-the-art equipment and must to be performed carefully and judiciously. This proposal asks for NSERC funding to purchase gas sorption equipment that allows our labs to conduct state-of-the-art measurements. The equipment will be used by several research groups at UBC. Besides hydrogen storage applications, it will be also used by hydrogen production researchers, who study various different alloy-based membranes for hydrogen production reactors.