Sharif Digital Repository

In the present work, high-energy mechanical alloying (MA) was employed to synthesize a nanostructured magnesium-based composite for hydrogen storage. The preparation of the composite material with composition of MgH2–5at% (TiCr1.2Fe0.6) was performed by co-milling of commercial available MgH2 powder with the body-centered cubic (bcc) alloy either in the form of Ti–Cr–Fe powder mixture with the proper mass fraction (sample A) or prealloyed TiCr1.2Fe0.6 powder (sample B). The prealloyed powder with an average crystallite size of 14nm and particle size of 384nm was prepared by the mechanical alloying process. It is shown that the addition of the Ti-based bcc alloy to magnesium hydride yields a... 

The effect of particle size, lattice strain and crystallite size on the hydrogen desorption properties of nanocrystalline magnesium hydride powder was investigated. Commercial MgH2 powder was milled in a Spex 8000M up to 16 h and its structural evolution and desorption characteristics at different time intervals were examined using various analytical techniques. At the early stage of milling, the formation of metastable γ-MgH2 phase was noticed. While the crystallite size gradually decreased to 12 nm with increasing the milling time, the accumulated lattice strain gained a maximum value of 0·9% after 4 h milling. The highest drop in the desorption temperature (∼100°C) was attained at the... 

In the present work, the synergetic effect of Ti-based catalysts (TiH2 and TiO2 particles) on hydrogen desorption kinetics of nanostructured magnesium hydride was investigated. Nanostructured 84mol% MgH2-10%mol TiH2-6%mol TiO2 nanocomposite powder was prepared by high-energy ball milling and subjected to thermal analyses. Evaluation of the absorption/desorption properties revealed that the addition of the Ti-based catalysts significantly improved the hydrogen storage performance of MgH2. A decrease in the decomposition temperature (as high as 100°C) was attained after co-milling of MgH2 with the Ti-based catalysts. Meanwhile, solid-state chemical reactions between MgH2 and TiO2 nanoparticles... 

The present study was aimed at performance and energy analysis of a hybrid wind-hydrogen power system. Such system consists of wind turbines, batteries for the short time energy storage, electrolyzer, fuel cell and hydrogen tank for long time energy storage. The proposed configuration is used to supply energy demand of a region with discrete seasonal wind speed regime. Temporary wind energy profiles restrict using batteries for electricity storage as they lose much electrical stored energy for the long time. Based on direct wind turbine usage, batteries and hydrogen storage, different energy supply strategies are introduced and analyzed to power the household electricity demand. The energy... 

In the present work, the interaction of hydrogen molecules with defective graphene structures doped by transition metal (TM) atoms is investigated by using first principles density functional theory (DFT). Defective graphene structures include Stone-Wales (SW), 585 and 555-777 and transition metals include early TMs, i.e. scandium (Sc), titanium (Ti) and vanadium (V). It is found that in comparison with the pristine graphene, presence of defects significantly enhances the metal binding. Among three defects, 585 divacancy leads to the strongest binding between graphene and metal. Hydrogen adsorption is then evaluated by sequential addition of hydrogen molecules to the system. The results... 

This paper presents an approach for optimal operation of a grid-connected hybrid system to maximize the system expected generated energy while maximizing the electricity sale revenue. The hybrid system consists of a photovoltaic (PV) module, an electrolyser (EL), hydrogen storage tank (HS) and a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell (FC). The generated energy is sold to the distribution grid. During the grid interruptions, the hybrid system output is used as an emergency supply to serve the local load, hence increasing the supply reliability. The proposed approach splits the whole problem in two sub problems: revenue maximizing problem (RMP) and expected generation maximizing problem... 

In the present work the interaction of hydrogen molecules with perfect, defective and scandium doped polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) has been evaluated. At first the potential barrier for the penetration of hydrogen molecules through PAH structures has been investigated and then the adsorption of hydrogen molecules over PAH structures has been studied. To model the graphene surface for barrier calculations, it is shown that coronene can successfully estimate the graphene monolayer. The barrier height is calculated for perfect and two different defective PAH structures including Stone-Wales (SW) and 585. It is found that PAH even with small defects is impermeable to hydrogen molecules.... 

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) with diameter of about 50 nm were synthesized using thermal chemical vapor deposition. We have investigated the influence of Mg doping to the MWCNTs on its hydrogen storage property. TEM micrographs showed that Mg was attached to the MWCNTs and discontinuous arrangement of the carbon walls was recognized in the MWCNTs. According to XPS and BET analyses, the surface functional groups and pore size of the Mg-MWCNTs are increased by interactions between the Mg and the MWCNT's outer walls. The electrochemical discharging curves of the MWCNTs and Mg-doped MWCNTs revealed that the hydrogen storage capacity was 363 and 450 mAhg -1, respectively. Volumetric... 

The effect of particle size, lattice strain and crystallite size on the hydrogen desorption properties of nanocrystalline magnesium hydride powder was investigated. Commercial MgH2 powder was milled in a Spex 8000M up to 16 h and its structural evolution and desorption characteristics at different time intervals were examined using various analytical techniques. At the early stage of milling, the formation of metastable γ-MgH2 phase was noticed. While the crystallite size gradually decreased to 12 nm with increasing the milling time, the accumulated lattice strain gained a maximum value of 0·9% after 4 h milling. The highest drop in the desorption temperature (∼100°C) was attained at the... 

In the present work, high-energy mechanical alloying (MA) was employed to synthesize a nanostructured magnesium-based composite for hydrogen storage. The preparation of the composite material with composition of MgH2-5 at% (TiCr1.2Fe0.6) was performed by co-milling of commercial available MgH2 powder with the body-centered cubic (bcc) alloy either in the form of Ti-Cr-Fe powder mixture with the proper mass fraction (sample A) or prealloyed TiCr1.2Fe0.6 powder (sample B). The prealloyed powder with an average crystallite size of 14 nm and particle size of 384 nm was prepared by the mechanical alloying process. It is shown that the addition of the Ti-based bcc alloy to magnesium hydride yields... 

To improve the hydrogen kinetics of magnesium hydride, TiCr 1.2Fe0.6 alloy was prepared by vacuum arc remelting (VAR) and the alloy was co-milled with MgH2 to process nanostructured MgH2-5 at.% TiCr1.2Fe0.6 powder. The hydrogen desorption properties of the composite powder were studied and compared with pure magnesium hydride. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis showed that the composite powder prepared by VAR/mechanical alloying (MA) procedure consisted of β-MgH2, γ-MgH2, bcc Ti-Cr-Fe alloy, and small amount of MgO. The average size of particles and their grain structure after 4 h MA were determined by a laser particle size analyzer and XRD method and found to be 194 nm and 11 nm,... 

We report a study on hydrogen storage in Ca, Co, Fe, Ni, and Pd decorated multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) by using two techniques: volumetric and electrochemical. The results showed that hydrogen molecules are adsorbed on the defect sites and transported to the spaces between adjacent carbon via diffusion through both defect sites and opened tips into the layers. Hydrogen storage capacity can be improved in the decorated MWCNT by Co, Fe, Ni, and Ca metals in two approaches: (i) H2 adsorption via Kubas interaction and (ii) dissociation of H2 molecules on the metal particles. The results reveal that Pd are more effective catalyst for hydrogen storage process. It was found that... 

Using multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), the present study focuses on their electrochemical hydrogen storage capacities. The results showed that the hydrogen desorption process is composed of two steps with voltages around -0.75 and -0.15 V. Hydrogen adsorption at -0.15 V took place at temperatures above 30 °C, and the amount of energy required for adsorbing hydrogen was 1.68 eV. The hydrogen storage capacity increased with increasing electrolyte temperature from 30 to 60 °C in both steps. The hydrogen storage capacity of the MWCNTs treated at different atmospheres showed that the decrease in the graphitization of MWCNTs led to the increase in hydrogen adsorption. The results also... 

The effects of various ratios of Fe/Ni/MgO and growth temperatures on yield, diameter and quality of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were studied. Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) confirmed that the MWCNT yield depends on Fe/Ni ratio with the following order; Fe0.5 Ni0.5 > Fe > Fe0.75 Ni0.25 > Fe0.25 Ni0.75 > Ni. The results indicated that there is an optimum temperature (940 °C) for the MWCNT growth both from quality and quantity (yield) aspects as compared to other temperatures. Moreover, the changes on Fe/Ni to MgO ratio for the MWCNT growth revealed that Fe/Ni/MgO with the ratio of 17.5/17.5/65 had the highest quality and surface area as compared to the other ratios. The... 

Hydrogen storage/evolution behavior of nafion/NaCl/graphene quantum dot (GQD) mixed matrix as selective hydrogen capacitor (power source) was evaluated in detail through an electrochemical process at two independent potential ranges. For this purpose, a three-electrode system included Pt disk as counter electrode, Ag/AgCl as reference electrode and GQD-based mixed matrix-modified Pt disk as working electrode. For hydrogen storage, the deposition potential and time were evaluated to −1.0 V (vs. Ag/AgCl) and 120 s, respectively under high basic solution generated using NaOH (1.0 M) solution, followed by evolution of hydrogen at +0.8 V (vs. Ag/AgCl) during formation of hydrogen bubbles. The... 

The techno-economic and environmental performance of hybrid solar hydrogen energy systems was investigated to provide combined cooling, heating and power (CCHP) demands of a standalone greenhouse in Iran to achieve sustainable agriculture based on an optimization procedure. From the environmental point of view, by deploying hybrid energy systems, 83%, to 100% of emissions can be avoided. Also a sensitivity analysis was performed on the hybrid energy systems in order to study the effect of major parameter variation on the systems justification. It was concluded that hybrid solar systems are economically competitive with conventional systems, for high solar intensity locations with high diesel... 

Hydrogen storage capacities of raw, oxidized, purified and Fe-doped multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were studied by electrochemical method. Based on transmission electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopic data, thermal oxidation removed defective graphite shells at the outer walls of MWCNTs. The analysis results indicated that the acid treatment dissolved most of the catalysts and opened some tips of the MWCNTs. Thermal gravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry results illustrated that by oxidation and purification of MWCNTs, the weight loss peak shifts toward a higher temperature. N2 adsorption isotherms of the purified and oxidized MWCNTs showed an increase in N2... 

Work carried out in Iran seems to indicate that nanostructured materials may hold a key to fuel storage in a future hydrogen economy.... © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved  

In order to achieve the international climate goals and to keep the global temperature increase below 2 °C, carbon capture and storage in large point sources of CO2 emissions has received considerable attention. In recent years, mitigation of CO2 emissions from the power sector has been studied extensively whereas other industrial point source emitters such as hydrogen industry have also great potential for CO2 abatement. This study aims to draw an updated comparison between different hydrogen and power cogeneration systems using natural gas and coal as feedstock. The goal is to show the relative advantage of cogeneration systems with respect to CO2 emission reduction costs. Accordingly, the... 

The performance of the tower based concentrated solar thermal (CST-tower) plant is very sensitive to the operation strategy of the plant and the incident heat flux on the receiver. To date, most studies have been examined only the design mode characteristics of the cavity receivers, but this paper significantly expands the literature by considering non-design operating conditions of this important sub-component of the CST-tower plants. A feasible non-design operating conditions of the cavity receivers that was considered in this study is the storage mode of operation. Two practical dynamic control strategies were examined then to find the most efficient approach: fixed solar field mass...