The next hairbrained Idea......

[mikenash]

Petrol here is €1.50+ per litre gas is about €25 for the small cylinder you would use in a gas heater so relatively cheap. thats with shopping around you can also pay €1.65 for petrol and €30 for the gas. There's no non runners for sale near me at the minute but I can wait. The website I was looking at that said gas was 50% cheaper was American and they were using mains gas I know that even in Ireland its way cheaper than bottled gas. It has to be worth a shot I think.

Back when we had Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) here, folks would do dangerous things with diving tank air compressors to fill CNG tanks with "pipeline" gas.  I never heard of any explosions . . . .

[BruceM]

Methane has less energy than hydrogen, and unless you can cool it to -163 C, where it turns to liquid, it's going to be stored as a gas.  At modest pressures that is not practical with the volumes of gas needed for any useful work, just as I previously estimated for hydrogen.

If you could use some bioengineered bacteria to make propane instead of methane, then it would be a whole new ball game.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a11177/these-bacteria-can-cook-up-propane-from-scratch-17166594/

[guest23837]

Would a water vessel work? I dont know if you guys abroad use them its basically a 100 litre tank with a rubber membrane in the middle. One side has 15 psi (I think) compressed air. The water pump is at the bottom of the well its ½hp but it pumps enough water up to the vessel then the membrane sends it through the pipes. It would probably work with gas too?

[BruceM]

An air over water tank is unnecessary for compressed air or gas.  Any steel tank of rated pressure will suffice, but again, the volume and number of tanks needed is ridiculous.

Where water is useful is for huge plastic gas bladders under sea.  The uniform pressure keeps the strain off the bladder so massive volumes are possible.

A fuel gas that becomes liquid at a modest pressures and temperatures is much, much more practical for compact storage and transport.  Hydrogen storage via absorption by lithium hydride filled tanks is one pricey way around that difficulty. 

[ajaffa1]

Hey Glort, I keep looking at this same problem of storing energy, natures way is sugars and vegetable oils. Sugars are easily converted into liquid fuels, ethanol or methanol. both can be used to run engines or burned to produce heat/light. If I remember right the British Challenger battle tank was designed to run on any available hydrocarbon, including whisky! Can`t imagine troops pouring good drinking whisky into a tank without complaining like hell and then having a nip or two to improve their mood. 

Shouldn`t be too difficult to set up some sort of still with all the electricity you have available. The problem then comes down to a drought resistant high sugar feed stock that can easily be grown in Australia. Jerusalem artichokes might be a contender.

I have been wondering for a while if anyone has ever tried to apply electrolysis to a hydrocarbons like WVO, WMO. Would it work and would the gas produced be suitable for feeding into stationary engines or cooking/heating appliances? This would probably require some sort of catalyst to promote the electrolytic process, any crazy people here who have explored this? 

Bob