Development of a modular room-temperature hydride storage system for vehicular applications

Abstract The subject of this paper concerns the development of a vehicular hydrogen tank system, using a commercial interstitial metal hydride as storage material. The design of the tank was intended to feed a fuel cell in a light prototype vehicle, and the chosen hydride material, Hydralloy C5 by GfE, was expected to be able to absorb and desorb hydrogen in a range of pressure suitable for this purpose. A systematic analysis of the material in laboratory scale allows an extrapolation of the thermodynamic and reaction kinetics data. The following development of the modular tank was done according to the requirements of the prototype vehicle propulsion system and led to promising intermediate results. The modular approach granted flexibility in the design, allowing both to reach carefully the design goals and to learn the limiting factors in the sorption process. Proper heat management and suitable equipment remain key factors in order to achieve the best performances.

[1]  Terry A. Johnson,et al.  Performance of a full-scale hydrogen-storage tank based on complex hydrides. , 2011, Faraday discussions.

[2]  P. Lund,et al.  AB2 metal hydrides for high-pressure and narrow temperature interval applications , 1998 .

[3]  Tomoyuki Yokota,et al.  “Hybrid hydrogen storage vessel”, a novel high-pressure hydrogen storage vessel combined with hydrogen storage material , 2003 .

[4]  K. Feucht,et al.  Results of a Test Fleet with Metal Hydride Motor Cars* , 1989 .

[5]  Ulrich Eberle,et al.  Hydrogen storage in metal–hydrogen systems and their derivatives , 2006 .

[6]  Loredana Magistri,et al.  Innovative Systems for Hydrogen Storage , 2010 .

[7]  Georg Fieg,et al.  Empirical kinetic model of sodium alanate reacting system (II). Hydrogen desorption , 2010 .

[8]  P. Marty,et al.  MgH2 intermediate scale tank tests under various experimental conditions , 2011 .

[9]  G. Lozano,et al.  Enhanced volumetric hydrogen density in sodium alanate by compaction , 2011 .

[10]  Georg Fieg,et al.  Concept, Design and Manufacture of a Prototype Hydrogen Storage Tank Based on Sodium Alanate , 2009 .

[11]  G. Capurso.  Innovative Materials and Systems for Solid State Hydrogen Storage , 2013 .

[12]  F. Askri,et al.  Experimental and comparative study of metal hydride hydrogen tanks , 2011 .

[13]  G. Lozano,et al.  Behavior of scaled-up sodium alanate hydrogen storage tanks during sorption , 2012 .

[14]  I. R. Harris,et al.  Hydrogen decrepitation as a method of powder preparation of a 2:17-type, Sm(Co, Cu, Fe, Zr)8.92 magnetic alloy , 1985 .

[15]  D. Mori,et al.  Recent challenges of hydrogen storage technologies for fuel cell vehicles , 2009 .

[16]  Peter Lund,et al.  Feasibility study of a metal hydride hydrogen store for a self-sufficient solar hydrogen energy system , 1996 .

[17]  Peter Lund,et al.  Metal hydride hydrogen storage for near-ambient temperature and atmospheric pressure applications, a PDSC study , 1995 .

[18]  P. Marty,et al.  Large scale magnesium hydride tank coupled with an external heat source , 2012 .

[19]  P. Jena.  Materials for Hydrogen Storage: Past, Present, and Future , 2011 .

[20]  O. Zabara,et al.  Experimental results of an air-cooled lab-scale H 2 storage tank based on sodium alanate , 2011 .

[21]  G. Lozano,et al.  Design, sorption behaviour and energy management in a sodium alanate-based lightweight hydrogen storage tank , 2015 .

[22]  G. Adolfo,et al.  Development of hydrogen storage systems using Sodium alanate , 2010 .

[23]  Andrew Burke,et al.  Hydrogen Storage Options: Technologies and Comparisons for Light-Duty Vehicle Applications , 2005 .

[24]  G. Walker,et al.  Review on hydrogen absorbing materials—structure, microstructure, and thermodynamic properties , 2006 .

[25]  N. Silin,et al.  Guidelines for thermal management design of hydride containers , 2012 .

[26]  Zihang Zhang,et al.  Design of the metal hydride reactors – A review on the key technical issues , 2010 .

[27]  Michael J. Veenstra,et al.  System modeling methodology and analyses for materials-based hydrogen storage , 2012 .

[28]  F. Laurencelle,et al.  Simulation of heat transfer in a metal hydride reactor with aluminium foam , 2007 .

[29]  Optimization of hydrogen storage tubular tanks based on light weight hydrides , 2012 .