As the world turns its attention to electric vehicles as a replacement for gas-powered cars and trucks, some vehicles such as long-haul trucks and planes will need a bridge between gas and electric.
As the world turns its attention to electric vehicles as a replacement for gas-powered cars and trucks, some vehicles such as long-haul trucks and planes will need a bridge between gas and electric.
Natural gas could be a viable alternative. It’s widely available and burns more cleanly than gasoline. There are even conversion kits already available to allow your passenger cars or long-haul trucks to run on natural gas, says Adam Matzger, professor of chemistry at the University of Michigan.
“Natural gas is everywhere, and it’s seen as sort of a stepping stone fuel from gasoline to electric or hydrogen,” he said. “The main problem with it is storage. Cost is good. Distribution is good. Storage is the problem.”
Matzger, who studies a material called metal-organic frameworks, thought that these MOFs had untapped potential to store methane, the largest component of natural gas.
MOFs are rigid, porous structures composed of metals linked by organic ligands. Methane can be stored within an MOF through a process called adsorption. In adsorption, the molecules of a substance cling to the surface of a material making storage at low pressures possible.
Read more at: University of Michigan
