Dynamic simulation of kinetics, heat and mass transfer during hydrogen sorption by LaNi5

Abstract

AbstractA two‐dimensional transient heat and mass transfer models have been developed to investigate the dynamic phenomena of hydrogen absorption and desorption in metal hydride bed. LaNi5 has been chosen as the alloy used for hydrogen storage. The numerical simulation has been conducted to simulate the time–space evolution of temperature, fractional conversion, hydrogen pressure and velocity, in addition to metal density. A correlation for the volumetric reaction rate has been deduced. Also, comparisons have been done between various bed geometries and their influence on the average hydrogen desorbed mass. The simulation results showed that heat transfer controls the overall rate of absorption and desorption processes, and because the driving force for the hydrogen flow is the axial pressure difference; the challenge to get optimum bed geometry is in compromising between heat transfer and pressure drop limitations. Copyright © 2009 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.