Numerical simulation and performance test of metal hydride hydrogen storage system

Metal hydride reactors are widely used in many industrial applications, such as hydrogen storage, thermal compression, heat pump, etc. According to the research requirement of metal hydride hydrogen storage, the thermal analyses have been implemented in the paper. The metal hydride reaction beds are considered as coupled cylindrical tube modules which combine the chemical absorption and desorption in metal hydride. The model is then used metal hydride LaNi5 as an example to predict the performance of metal hydride hydrogen storage devices, such as the position of hydration front and the thermal flux. Under the different boundary condition the characteristics of heat transfer and mass transfer in metal hydride have influence on the hydrogen absorption and desorption. The researches revealed that the scroll design can improve the temperature distribution in the reactor and the porous tube for directing hydrogen can increase the penetration depth of hydride reaction to decrease the hydrogen absorption time.