(378ah) Heat and Mass Transfer of Complex Metal Hydride Hydrogen Storage Reactor with Improved Heat Exchange System: Modelling and Simulation

Extensive research to find alternative clean and eco-friendly renewable energy sources over the years has increased interest in hydrogen as a fuel that can potentially replace traditional fossil fuels for various applications. The application of hydrogen fuel technology in the automotive industry is limited by challenges arising from the storage of hydrogen. Solid-state hydrogen storage is one possible solution, where a porous metal hydride material is packed into a bed in a reactor; however, current hydrogen storage systems based on this method still exhibit high charge/discharge temperature ranges and slow sorption kinetics. This thermodynamic and kinetic limitations of metal hydride storage methods leave a room for further research into finding better storage materials in combination with optimal reactor designs. Hydrogen charge/discharge from the metal hydride bed depend on the macro-kinetics and physical adsorption/desorption processes which are related to the thermal management of the storage system

In this work, a hydrogen storage reactor with a combination of internal helical and external jacket heat exchange configurations packed with a Li-Ni-Mg based storage material was tested both experimentally and theoretically. Heat and mass transfer simulation results of this system (via OpenFOAM) were in agreement with our experimental data as well as literature findings. The combination of CFD and experiment were used to develop an improved reactor thermal management and material sorption kinetics.