Metal hydride cylindrical tank for energy hydrogen storage: Experimental and computational modeling investigations

Abstract

In this paper, experimental and numerical studies of hydrogen solid storage are investigated. An experimental test bench was implemented to investigate the hydride metal tank thermal behavior upon various cooling/heating modes. The metal hydride tank (La0.9Ce0.1Ni5), a 300 W proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack, and the auxiliary equipment to measure and regulate the physical parameters were used. Absorption and desorption processes were investigated under different operating conditions in order to address the performance of metal hydride. The metal has been thermally managed to minimize the charging time and to extend the operating time of the fuel cell. Different hydrogen charge pressures (4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10 bar) were analyzed to define their effects on the metal hydride temperature, heat flux, flow rate and charging time. All these parameters were performed during charge and discharge processes for various inlet cooling temperature of 5 °C, 10 °C, 15 °C, 20 °C, 25 °C and 30 °C. The metal hydride could be charged quickly by hydrogen under high inlet pressure and using an efficient cooling mode with high heat transfer coefficient and cold temperature. The results show that more cooling temperature is low, much faster hydrogen is absorbed. Decreasing the cooling temperature increases the difference between the equilibrium pressure and the charging pressure and a higher absorbed hydrogen flow rate will obtain. The state of charge is increased by 1.6% by decreasing cooling temperature by 1 °C. However, the state of discharge increases with the heating temperature (2.5% per 1 °C).