This Small Business Innovation Phase I proposal addresses the essential problem facing commercialization of natura1 gas as a transportation fuel. The goal of commercializing natural gas as an alternative vehicular fuel has engendered intense research and development activities in the various areas of alternative fuel components and systems, component and vehicular dynamics, control systems, vehicular energy systems, and most importantly in the adsorptive storage media itself. Despite this activity, attempts to discover, fabricate and/or re-engineer existing natural gas absorbents have not led to a successful commercial storage media for natural gas. This proposal examines this problem and proposes a new and novel strategy, supported by actual data, for forming an enhanced, high density, high surface area, monolithic composite storage media for natural gas. The proposed storage media is higher in density than absorbents previously evaluated for storing natural gas as well as having a well define pore size that researchers have predicted as optimum for natural gas storage. Natural gas is a precious resource of major economic significance world-wide. The environmentally friendly aspects of natural gas as a fuel make it likely to become even more important in the world. This composite adsorbent approach is the first major step in natural gas adsorbent technology in several decades and offers a real potential for enhancing natural gas storage. If successful, this Phase I effort would have direct application in automotive transportation as well as in its supporting industries. The process is also potentially important across the spectrum of commercial storage and separation and purification techniques for natural gas.
