Hydrogen, lithium, and lithium hydride production

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9682859-B2
Application number	US-201414171801-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 4, 2014
Priority date	Aug 31, 2011
Publication date	Jun 20, 2017
Grant date	Jun 20, 2017

Abstract

A method is provided for extracting hydrogen from lithium hydride. The method includes (a) heating lithium hydride to form liquid-phase lithium hydride; (b) extracting hydrogen from the liquid-phase lithium hydride, leaving residual liquid-phase lithium metal; (c) hydriding the residual liquid-phase lithium metal to form refined lithium hydride; and repeating steps (a) and (b) on the refined lithium hydride.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of producing hydrogen comprising:
(a) providing lithium hydride in a process vessel;
(b) heating the lithium hydride in the process vessel to form liquid-phase lithium hydride;
(c) extracting hydrogen from the liquid-phase lithium hydride, leaving residual liquid-phase lithium metal in the process vessel, the hydrogen being extracted from the process vessel and used in a fuel cell process or used in other devices or chemical processes outside the process vessel;
(d) hydriding the residual liquid-phase lithium metal in the process vessel to convert the residual liquid-phase lithium metal to liquid-phase lithium hydride; and
repeating steps (c) and (d) to provide a reusable hydrogen storage device.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the heating temperature in step (b) is at least 680° C.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein step (c) includes heating the liquid-phase lithium hydride to at least 750° C. to extract hydrogen from the liquid-phase lithium hydride.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing an agitator in the process vessel to retard the development of a barrier crust from forming during step (b).

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the agitator includes an inert gas sparge.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein the agitator includes an energy source having a periodic waveform.

7. A method of producing a reusable hydrogen storage device comprising:
(a) providing lithium hydride in a process vessel;
(b) heating the lithium hydride to form liquid-phase lithium hydride;
(c) extracting hydrogen from the liquid-phase lithium hydride, leaving residual liquid-phase lithium metal in the process vessel;
(d) hydriding the residual liquid-phase lithium metal while heating the process vessel to about 800° C. to convert the residual liquid-phase lithium metal to liquid-phase lithium hydride; and
repeating steps (c) and (d) to provide a reusable hydrogen storage device.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the heating temperature in step (b) is at least 680° C.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein step (c) includes heating the liquid-phase lithium hydride to at least 750° C. to extract hydrogen from the liquid-phase lithium hydride.

10. The method of claim 7 further comprising providing an agitator in the process vessel to retard the development of a barrier crust from forming during step (b).

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the agitator includes an inert gas sparge.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein the agitator includes an energy source having a periodic waveform.

Assignees

• Cons Nuclear Security Llc

Inventors

• Brown Sam W
• Spencer Larry S
• Phillips Michael R
• Powell G Louis
• Campbell Peggy J

Classifications

• B01D53/22

  by diffusion (manufacturing semi-permeable membranes B01D67/00; form, structure or properties of semi-permeable membranes B01D69/00; material for semi-permeable membranes B01D71/00) · CPC title

• C22B26/12

  Obtaining lithium · CPC title

• Y02E60/364

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• C01B3/04 Primary

  by decomposition of inorganic compounds (reversible storage of hydrogen C01B3/0018) · CPC title

• C01D15/00

  Lithium compounds · CPC title