KBSU scientists have found a way to safely store hydrogen

Scientists of the Kabardino-Balkarian State University named after H.M. Berbekov found a way to safely store hydrogen fuel. We are talking about using the technology of using natural serpentinite to absorb various hydrocarbons, Ramazan Tegaev, head of the hydrogen technology center at KBSU, told TASS on Wednesday. One of our projects, which is being implemented in cooperation with various departments of the university, is called “Cryosorption method for storing and transporting hydrogen using serpentinite as a natural sorbent”.

The uniqueness of the project lies in the use of serpentinite (serpentine) as a cryosorption material, the reserves of which in the Caucasus, a mountainous territory with numerous extinct and dormant volcanoes, amount to billions of cubic meters with open-pit mining, the agency’s interlocutor said.

«Serpentenite is a dense rock formed during the metamorphism of igneous rocks, it consists mainly of minerals of the serpentine group. The minerals in this group are rich in magnesium. Scientists use their properties in their development. The technology we have invented is environmentally friendly, universal, cheap and easy to implement», — said the head of the center.

According to Tegaev, the developments of KBSU scientists are relevant, since hydrogen is considered the most efficient, environmentally friendly fuel, which is already widely used in the transport sector and energy, when burned, it does not emit harmful greenhouse gases such as CO2 — only water vapor.

«Hydrogen is the future, but the industry faces challenges in its use due to the difficulty of storing and transporting it safely. An example of hydrogen storage is the use of activated carbon as an adsorbent, but, according to scientists, to obtain one kilogram of activated carbon, two cubic meters of wood must be burned. While the rock serpentinite, which is available on the territory of Kabardino-Balkaria, is lighter than analogues and surpasses them in sorption properties, porosity, and also has the properties necessary to fulfill the task of effectively using it as a hydrogen sorbent. This is confirmed by the results of our experiments — serpentinite effectively absorbs hydrogen and gives it away just as efficiently», — the head of the center explained.

Implementation in the industry
As they said at the university, with the standard method of transporting and storing liquid hydrogen, metal cylinders or storage stations are required that can withstand a pressure of 700 atmospheres. Whereas the method developed at KBSU consists in storing hydrogen in a conventional gas cylinder under a pressure of two atmospheres. As Tegaev explained, hydrogen, which is in a cylinder under a pressure of two atmospheres, can be used to operate an electric motor or an internal combustion engine. In our laboratory, an internal combustion engine runs on hydrogen.

«We already have a patent, developments are going through the stage of creating various modifications of the material. We are moving to the stage of applied experiments on various engines, including automobile ones,” — he said.

The expected outcome of the project is hydrogen tanks with 100% explosion safety, filled with serpentinite containing hydrogen in nano-capillaries for storage and use in everyday life and transport.

«As a commercial effect, it is planned to enter large-scale hydrogen producers on an industrial scale in order to introduce the proposed developments in this area», — the agency’s interlocutor added.

Electromagnetic traps for hydrocarbons
Employees of the Center for Hydrogen Technologies of KBSU have found another application of serpentinite — this is the development of a method for cleaning water surfaces from hydrocarbons using nanocomposite magnetic traps. Thanks to serpentinite, it is possible to clean the soil or water surface from oil spills — for this, it is necessary to sprinkle the stain with specially processed serpentinite, crushed to a powdery state, which “absorbs” oil, then this substance is mechanically collected, subsequently separating hydrocarbons from the mineral. We managed to detect the magnetism of serpentenite during its grinding and certain processing,” — Tegaev said.

KBSU specialists isolated magnetite from serpentinite and, together with colleagues from the KBSU Center for Advanced Materials and Additive Technologies, carried out a scientific development. The result was the manufacture of magnetic films, which include magnetite and polymer. Along with the sorption method of water purification, scientists have found application for serpentinite in the field of cleaning surfaces from hydrocarbon contamination. For the first time in the world, we managed to clean the surface of an oil slick using serpentinite and nanocomposite electromagnetic traps,” the head of the center explained. According to Tegaev, there are no analogues in the world either for storing liquid hydrogen under low pressure or for using the magnetic properties of serpentinite to purify water from oil products.

About the center
The center of Hydrogen center technologies of the Kabardino-Balkarian State University named after H.M. Berbekov was established at the end of 2021 as part of the implementation of the Priority 2030 program. The center conducts research work in the field of hydrogen energy: the development of green hydrogen fuel cells; obtaining new composites from which tanks for storage and transportation of liquid hydrogen will be made; the creation of hydrogen absorbers based on natural materials for transporting hydrogen, and also trains personnel in the field of hydrogen energy.
The center employs 20 scientists specializing in research in the field of physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology, who are engaged in the creation of «green» fuel and the problems of its transportation safety, in particular, the search for new sorbents based on natural raw materials of Kabardino-Balkaria.

Source: TASS