Hydrogen gas to Liters calculation

Thread Starter

gusmas

Joined Sep 27, 2008
239
Hey

Is there a general formula to convert a hydrogen gas canister with a know pressure into it's equivalent quantity in liters?

Because I am using a hydrogen fuel cell and its consumption is rated at 14 Liters per minute, but as far as I know hydrogen gas is measured in pressure so I need to be able to calculate how much hydrogen gas at a known pressure I will require to let say for example keep the fuel cell running for exactly 1 min. ( in other words 14 Liters of hydrogen).

Thanks
 

t_n_k

Joined Mar 6, 2009
5,455
Probably start with the ideal gas law: PV=nRT.

You need to know the container [gas bottle] volume as well as the container pressure. Temperature is also a required factor. This will give you the number of moles of gas contained - perhaps a more relevant number. Remember 1 mole = 22.4 L at STP.

I think you will need more information such as the fuel cell gas inlet conditions as well.

There are many on-line calculators such as

http://antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/senese/javascript/realgas.shtml

which includes calculations for non-ideal behavior.
 
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