Performance enhancement of an adsorbed natural gas storage system using various nanofluids: A heat and mass transfer approach.

The subject work presents a transient analysis of natural gas (methane) storage in a reactor with Maxsorb III activated carbon. The reactor is modified by providing the external cooling jacket at the outer wall of the storage tank with circular fins protruding towards the center of the tank. Furthermore, the performance of the reactor is investigated for various nanofluids acting as heat transfer fluids (HTFs). Water and various grades of oils have been used extensively as the coolant to counter the exothermic nature of the charging process. In the present investigation, simulations are carried out on Al2O3/water (H2O), CuO/water (H2O), and MgO/water (H2O) nanofluids with different volume fractions of nanoparticles. The results are compared with the water case. The result shows that the CuO/H2O nanofluids with 5 vol% performed better. Hence further comparisons have been performed between CuO/H2O nanofluids with 5 vol% and water for different gas inlet pressure and coolant inlet temperatures. It is observed that the CuO/H2O nanofluid with 5 vol% reduces the adsorption time for 90% adsorption by 3.3 % and 5.1 % for high supply pressure and low cooling fluid temperatures, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]