Effects of Different Heat Transfer Conditions on the Hydrogen Desorption Performance of a Metal Hydride Hydrogen Storage Tank

Abstract

To investigate the influence of thermal effects on the hydrogen desorption performance of the metal hydride hydrogen storage system, a two-dimensional numerical model was established based on a small metal hydride hydrogen storage tank, and its accuracy was verified by the temperature variations in the reaction zone of the hydrogen storage tank during hydrogen desorption. In addition, the influence of the heat transfer medium on the heat and mass transfer performance of the hydrogen desorption reaction was analyzed. An external heat transfer bath was added to simulate the thermal effect of the model during the hydrogen desorption reaction. The temperature and type of heat transfer medium in the heat transfer bath were modified, and the temperature and reaction fraction variations in each zone of the hydrogen storage model were analyzed. The results showed that under heat transfer water flow, the reaction rate in the center region of the hydrogen storage tank was gradually lower than that in the wall region. The higher the temperature of water flow, the shorter the total time required for the hydrogen desorption reaction and the shortening amplitude is reduced. The variations in the temperature and hydrogen storage capacity during hydrogen desorption were similar, with water and oil as the heat transfer medium, under the same flow rate and heat transfer temperature, however, the heat transfer time and hydrogen desorption time of water were about 10% and 5% shorter than that of oil, respectively. When the air was used as the heat transfer medium, the heat transfer rate of the air convection in the channel was lower than the heat transfer rate of the tank wall, reducing the temperature difference between the air and alloy on both sides of the wall, decreasing heat transfer efficiency, and significantly prolonging the time required for hydrogen desorption.