Liquid-film-type catalytic decalin dehydrogeno-aromatization for long-term storage and long-distance transportation of hydrogen

A new approach for mobile storage of hydrogen has been proposed with the use of a catalytic reaction pair of decalin dehydrogenation/naphthalene hydrogenation. With the complement of the industrialized naphthalene-hydrogenation catalysis, the other endothermic catalysis for decalin dehydrogenation was now performed at around 200°C with carbon-supported platinum-based catalysts. Under liquid-film conditions, hydrogen was evolved from decalin much more efficiently than the suspended ones due to the superheated states of dehydrogenation catalysts. It was confirmed that the catalytic conversions of decalin dehydrogeno-aromatization in the liquid-film states could surpass easily the equilibrium limit, because the conditions of suppressed reactant evaporation and reactive distillation were operative here. Exergy loss in the hydrogen storage system would be reduced tremendously by adopting this catalyst-assisted decalin/naphthalene pair as the medium of hydrogen carrier.