Cutting Costs for Storing and Transporting Hydrogen
Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) announced on March 9 that it has succeeded in developing technology that can store hydrogen in a liquid form.
The new hydrogen storage technology developed by KEPCO, which is dubbed liquid organic hydrogen carries (LOHC), can put much more hydrogen in a container than current high-pressure compression storage technology. It can also lower the hydrogen storage and transportation costs.
Research on LOHC technology began in 2017. But until now, research on the new technology has remained at the basic level of 1Nm3, which refers to the volume of gas at 0 degree Celsius and atmospheric pressure of 1. But KEPCO succeeded in verifying the technology that can store 20Nm3 hydrogen per hour.
KEPCO said that it has received a certificate from Korea Gas Safety Corp. on a hydrogen storage facility based on LOHC technology.
The new technology is based on the principle of storing hydrogen in liquid compounds by reacting hydrogen with dibenzyltoluene (DBT) and a catalyst under certain conditions (a temperature of 50 degrees Celsius to 180 degrees Celsius and a pressure 50 times the atmospheric pressure). When hydrogen is reacted with a catalyst at a high temperature of 250 degrees Celsius or higher and under a pressure about three times the atmospheric pressure, the gas is separated again from the liquid compounds. The hydrogen-storing liquid compounds are reusable.
Assuming that about 5 kg of hydrogen can be put into a hydrogen electric car, 100 liters of LOHC are enough for charging a hydrogen car. No leakage occurs even when hydrogen is stored for more than one year, KEPCO explained.