Concept, Design and Manufacture of a Prototype Hydrogen Storage Tank Based on Sodium Alanate

Abstract

In the framework of the EC project STORHY (Hydrogen Storage for Automotive Applications), the prototype of a solid storage tank for hydrogen based on sodium alanate was developed. A storage tank containing 8 kg sodium alanate was designed and manufactured with the objective of fast refueling. To obtain the optimum design of the storage tank a simulation tool was developed and validated by experiments with a laboratory-scale tubular reactor. Application of the simulation tool to different storage concepts and geometries yielded the final design. The chosen concept is modular, enabling simple scale-up. This is the basis for the future development of fuel cell vehicle storage tanks containing 5 kg of hydrogen.

Metal hydride material requirements for automotive hydrogen storage systems

“…In the late 1990s some hydride materials, like NaAlH 4 , which were widely considered to be non-reversible, were shown to be reversible under reasonable operating conditions with the addition of certain additives [9]. Since then, several demonstration projects [10,11,12,13,14] have evaluated NaAlH 4 as a possible reversible metal hydride for vehicle applications. While improvements in the overall weight of a storage system appears possible using higher capacity sodium alanate material, the slower absorption and release rates for this material, coupled with higher heats of reaction or enthalpy, has resulted in little overall improvement of these systems for vehicle applications.…”

Nanoscopic Al1−xCex phases in the NaH + Al + 0.02CeCl3 system

“…As such, there has been considerable interest in NaAlH 4 storage tank development. In [10], a high temperature PEMFC stack was developed specifically for use with NaAlH 4 , with demonstrated service of over 5000 h running at 200 C. The first prototype NaAlH 4 storage tank contained 19 kg of catalyzed NaAlH 4 [11], a thermally optimized tank containing 8 kg of NaAlH 4 was trialed in [12], and NaAlH 4 hydrogenation kinetics were optimized based on cell diameter in [13]. The most recent work utilizes a 304 g labscale tank of NaAlH 4 þ 0.02CeCl 3 [14].…”

Thermodynamic and mechanical properties of lanthanum–magnesium phases from density functional theory

“…Examples include material models of strain-induced phase transitions in high strength steels (e.g. transformation induced plasticity) that liberate heat, and models of battery and hydrogen storage propulsion systems [41][42][43][44][45][46][47]. These quantities are often assumed to be constants, or values used in models are best guesses since experimental measurements from room temperature to melting are often difficult or non-existent.…”