ABSTRACT
Storage ............................................................................................. 313 8.4 Conclusion .................................................................................................. 315 Nomenclature ...................................................................................................... 316 References ............................................................................................................. 317
It is known that nearly all of our vehicles currently run on either gasoline or diesel fuel, which is dangerous from the point of view of environmental protection. This situation requires alternative energy carriers to be developed to promote future energy security. Hydrogen and natural gas have the potential to be very attractive alternative energy carriers. These two gases are clean, efficient and derived from diverse domestic resources, such as fossil resources. Natural gas (methane) is one of the primary energy sources, and it will maintain this position for at least the next 20 years. Huge reserves of natural gas are stored as gas hydrates under water and in a permafrost zone. These reserves exceed all other energy resources of Earth, including oil, coal and nuclear fuels. In addition, natural gas is a potential source for large-scale production of pure hydrogen as a result of catalytic conversion of methane. The successful development of new hydrogen technologies, such as fuel cells, transport systems on hydrogen and methane and sorption heat pumps, has shown that the use of hydrogenous gas results in qualitatively new solutions of ecological and power problems. One of the ways of gradual penetration of hydrogen as a fuel for internal combustion engines is its application in dual-fuel vehicles (hydrogen-gasoline, hydrogen-methane etc.) with a sorption system of gas storage. Such an approach yields a minimum increase of weight at the expense of the storage system and does not require application of electromotors, commutators and heavy accumulators. In service of the dual-fuel motor transport, a change is possible from hydrogen fuel to hydrocarbon fuel or to their mixture, depending on their accessibility. The application of combined (hydrogen and methane) gas storage systems is a promising alternative. In fuel cell automobiles, hydrogen can be disposed in a container in the adsorbed state or made immediately from accumulated methane.
