Application of polymeric foams for separation, storage and absorption of hydrogen

To build and operate a “hydrogen economy” in future, it is essential to develop safe and reliable technologies to handle (produce, recover, concentrate, store, deliver, etc.) hydrogen gas. In this work, application possibilities of polystyrene foam were studied and the experiments have proven that closed cell polymeric foams are able not only to separate and store hydrogen, but even to absorb it from gaseous mixtures.

Our theoretical considerations and experimental results have proven that the integrated system with membrane buffer based on closed cell polymeric foam is able to separate hydrogen and, simultaneously, compensate differences in rates of feed injection and product removal. Utilizing the difference in time-lags of diffusion of different gases in polymeric foam, efficient gas separation can be achieved during transient state. High-purity hydrogen can be obtained. Usage of polymeric foam can be extended and our experiments have proven that it is able to “absorb” hydrogen from gas mixtures, the absorption shows preference towards hydrogen, so in this way it is possible to recover hydrogen from its diluted gas mixtures.