Effect of metal hydride properties in hydrogen absorption through 2D-axisymmetric modeling and experimental testing in storage canisters

Abstract

A two-dimensional axisymmetric model is developed to study the hydrogen absorption reaction and resultant mass and heat transport phenomena inside a metal hydride canister. The model is compared against published literature and experimental data. Experimental tests are performed on an in-house fabricated setup using different cooling scenarios. An extensive study on the effects of the metal properties on charging performance is carried out through nondestructive testing (NDT). Results show that the properties that most influence the charging performance are: absorption rate constant (Ca), activation energy (Ea) and thermal conductivity (k m ). A Higher porosity (ε) reduces charging time and amount of hydrogen stored while a higher cooling level produces a faster charging process. These results can be used to select metal hydride materials but also to estimate the metal hydride internal state and the process can be used for future evaluation of metal hydride degradation.

Mathematical modeling, numerical simulation and experimental comparison of the desorption process in a metal hydride hydrogen storage system

“…In order to compare the simulations with the experimental results and also to observe the evolution of the parameters in a practical application, the following experimental setup is implemented [8,13,23].…”

“…Hydrogen stored as a absorbed element inside metal hydride materials offers certain advantages compared to high-pressure gaseous or cryogenic liquid storage systems in terms of compactness, storage at conditions close to ambient, energy required to store the hydrogen, possibility of tailoring metal hydrides to suit different temperature-pressure requirements, as well as being inherently safe because hydrogen is stored at low pressure [6][7][8]. The disadvantage is that it offers low energetic density per unit of mass due to the weight of the metal itself.…”

“…A lot of studies have been made regarding the modeling of hydrogen storage in metal hydride systems, but most of these studies are focused on hydrogen absorption reactions [2,6,[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20], and numerical studies of the hydrogen desorption process are relatively rare [3,14,[19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27].…”

“…In a previous work, Busqué et al [8], the effects of different metal properties and other parameters were tested and analyzed during hydrogen absorption in a metal hydride storage system both numerically and experimentally. Numerical and experimental data achieved a good agreement, and therefore, the results can be used to identify different behaviors of the metal hydride material or evaluate its current status.…”

Numerical investigation of two discharging procedures of a metal hydride‐hydrogen storage tank

“…Thus, several techniques have been proposed by several works to accelerate heat transfer and reduce the MH‐HST charging/discharging times. Some of useful techniques among them are available as metal foam, 1‐6 hydride‐graphite‐composites, 7‐9 micro‐encapsulation, 10 fins, 11‐18 cooling jacket containing a recirculating coolant, 19‐22 internal cooling tubes, 23‐30 heat pipes, 31‐34 helical‐coil, 35‐39 size and aspect ratio of the tank, 40 new metal hydrides, 41‐44 compartmentalization, 45 physical mixing, 46 metal of the tank envelope, 47 particle radius and porosity, 48,49 pulverization and self‐densification, 50 nanomodification, 51‐53 and embossed plate heat exchanger 54…”