Gas Holder

Basics

• Also known as a gasometer
• Uses a similar mechanism to holding a cup upside down in water to trap gas for storage
• It acts as a buffer - removing the need for continuous gas production.
• In the traditional design the weight of the gasholder lift (cap) controlled the pressure of the gas
• Consists of two main parts:
  • a deep tank of water that was used to provide a seal
  • a vessel that rose above the water as the gas volume increased
• Common for old Gasworks, due to the lower technology of the time
• Although there are better modern options, they also tend to be more complex, and maitnence intensive
• Thus at least in certain applications, or as an intermediary, this may be of use due to the tradeoff of complexity and maitnence for overall size

Gas holder with an external fixed frame. Water provides a seal. The whole tank floats in a circular water reservoir, held up by the roughly constant pressure of a varying volume of gas. The pressure is determined by the weight of the structure, and the water providing the seal for the gas within the moving walls. Besides storing the gas, the tank's design serves to establish the pressure of the gas system.

Possible Uses

• Low Pressure Gas Storage
  • Mainly of combustable/"difficult" gasses like Syngas , Methane , Biogas, and Hydrogen
• Also may potentially work for storing C02 rich exhaust for CO2 Enrichment (especially if pre-processed with a Gas Scrubber
  • This would also produce (dilute?) carbonic acid, for better or worse
• Not the best for this application, but may act as a sort of Wet Scrubber
• Slightly modified to produce an Ionic Liquid Piston Gas Compressor

Existing Open Source Designs

• A Simple, Small Design by the youtube channel "NightHawkInLight" not usable for long term use etc, but good demonstration/proof of concept platform etc

Useful Links

• The Wikipedia Page on Gas Holders
• An article by "The Telegraph" ; "Gasometers: a brief history"

Single lift gasholder for use in storage of coal gas (1909).