Experimental and numerical study of metal hydride beds with Ti0.92Zr0.10Cr1.0Mn0.6Fe0.4 alloy for hydrogen compression

Abstract

A slow kinetic rate caused by the strong exothermic/endothermic effect is the main bottleneck restricting the practical application of metal hydride tanks for hydrogen compression. Numerical simulation is a powerful way to optimize the thermal management of the system, as long as a quantitative model can be obtained for accurate predictions of de-/hydrogenation performance. Here, we focus on a combined experimental and numerical study of the specific Ti0.92Zr0.10Cr1.0Mn0.6Fe0.4 hydride beds. The kinetic and thermodynamic parameters for the hydrogen absorption and desorption required by the simulation model are first determined, accompanied by an excellent coincidence between measured and fitted results. Meanwhile, two cylindrical test tanks of different sizes were designed to illustrate the hydrogenation and dehydrogenation properties of the metal hydride bed in different scenarios, with 20 g of powder in the small reactor and 700 g in the large one. Further results reveal that the temperature evolution curves obtained from experiments can be well matched with simulation, proving the dependability of the self-designed numerical model and favoring the subsequent performance optimization of the metal hydride tanks. This investigation is of general value for the numerical simulation of advanced hydrogen storage applications.