Numerical modeling and performance comparison of high-temperature metal hydride reactor equipped with bakery system for solar thermal energy storage

Abstract

The current study provides an optimal design strategy for the metal hydride reactor for the thermal energy storage system for solar bakery applications. The sensitivity analysis of the annular truncated hollow conical fins type reactor was conducted by using COMSOL Multiphysics 5.3a software. The gravimetric exergy output rate and exergy output of different designs were compared. It was found that the optimal geometric parameters and operating conditions for the annular truncated hollow conical fins type reactor are fin angle (θ)=20°, fin radius (Rf) = 0.07 m, number of fins (Nf)= 32 and fin spacing (Sf) = 0.02 m, fin thickness (thf) = 0.008 m, hydrogen supply pressure (Pin, H2) = 5 MPa and inlet heat transfer fluid velocity (VHTF,in) = 20 m/s. Finally, it was concluded that the Deign IV is the most favorable design, which has a uniform reaction, faster reaction time (15,000 s), and higher values of gravimetric exergy output rate and exergy output (1.23 W/kg, 0.028 kW).