ANSTO's research capabilities, led by the OPAL nuclear research reactor and associated instruments provide access to users investigating areas as diverse as materials, life sciences, climate change and mining/engineering.
Gas-Storage Materials
2.1. Hydrogen Storage
Competitive hydrogen-powered transportation promises to transform existing industries and minimise the environmental impacts associated with fossil-fuel energy sources. The creation of new materials for the safe, efficient, and compact storage and retrieval of hydrogen is essential to the realization of hydrogen as a commercially-competitive energy carrier.
The aim of this project is to reveal fundamental insights into the interactions of hydrogen in and mechanisms of storage and retrieval from storage materials and to use the derived structure/dynamics-function relationships to create new materials with hydrogen-storage capabilities superior to existing systems. In considering methods to store hydrogen we are faced with the choice to convert it into another chemical compound from which the gas can be released (chemisorption), or to store the molecule "as is", as H2 (physisorption). This research studies both of these options.
Neutron scattering will be used to reveal insights into the physics and chemistry of hydrogen in these materials, a critical step in the design and construction of smarter and more efficient high-level hydrogen storage technologies.
2.2. Gas-Hydrates
Methane hydrates are of particular interest to the petrochemical industry as their formation can block deep sea gas pipelines resulting in large repair costs. Research into the crystallization kinetics of methane hydration and formation, the effects of additives and inhibitors, and the atomic and molecular scale structure will be investigated using in-situ neutron diffraction. Morphology will also be investigated using small angle X-ray and neutron scattering, including particulate morphology and agglomeration.
See recent results