Gas Storage in PVC Pipe

6" Pipe

Have you considered PVC pipe for gas storage? 6" costs $45 for a 20' section, caps are $15 (verify). Pipe + 2 caps is $75.

Each 20' section holds about 4 cubic feet of gas. So $750 gets us 40 cubic feet, or about 300 gallons equivalent. So comparable to new propane gas tanks.

At 10 atmospheres, that is equivalent to 3000 gallons of gas at one atmosphere. About 600 moles of gas, if primarily methane then it is about 10 kg of methane, or about 2 gallons of gasoline equivalent.

What do you think?

Comparison to 1" Pipe

• If 6" pipe is $75 for 4 cubic feet - what is the price comparison for 1" pipe?
• It is .785 cu in per inch of pipe, or 188 cu in per stick. of 1728 cu in per cu ft - 1/10 cu ft per pipe. 40 cubic feet would be 400 pipes.
• At $5 per stick, this is $2k for the same volume of storage. However, with the 3x as high pressure rating, the storage can handle methane at the same cost.
• What about hydrogen?