Experiments on solid state hydrogen storage device with a finned tube heat exchanger

The absorption and desorption performances of a solid state (metal hydride) hydrogen storage device with a finned tube heat exchanger are experimentally investigated. The heat exchanger design consists of two “U” shaped cooling tubes and perforated annular copper fins. Copper flakes are also inserted in between the fins to increase the overall effective thermal conductivity of the metal hydride bed. Experiments are performed on the storage device containing 1 kg of hydriding alloy LaNi₅, at various hydrogen supply pressures. Water is used as the heat transfer fluid. The performance of the storage device is investigated for different operating parameters such as hydrogen supply pressure, cooling fluid temperature and heating fluid temperature. The shortest charging time found is 490 s for the absorption capacity of 1.2 wt% at a supply pressure of 15 bar and cooling fluid temperature and velocity of 288 K and 1 m/s respectively. The effect of copper flakes on absorption performance is also investigated and compared with a similar storage device without copper flakes.     

Optimal design of a metal hydride hydrogen storage bed using a helical coil heat exchanger along with a central return tube during the absorption process

Metal-hydride (MH) reactors are one of the most promising approaches for hydrogen storage because of their low operating pressure, high storage volumetric density and high security. However, the heat transfer performance of the MH reactor for high hydrogenation rate is inferior. In this study, the heat transfer and hydrogen absorption process of metal hydride tank performance in Mg₂Ni bed is analyzed numerically using commercial ANSYS-FLUENT software. The MH reactor is considered a cylindrical bed including a helical tube along with a central straight return tube for the cooling fluid. The effects of geometrical parameters including the tube diameter, the pitch size and the coil diameter as well as operational parameters on the heat exchanged and hydrogen absorption reactive time are evaluated comprehensively. The results showed that the helical heat exchanger along with central return tube could effectively improve heat exchanged between the cooling fluid and the metal alloy and reduce the temperature of the bed results in a higher rate of hydrogen absorption. For a proper configuration and geometry of the helical coil heat exchanger with a central return tube, the absorption reaction time is reduced by 24% to reach 90% of the storage capacity. After the optimization study of the geometrical parameters, a system with the heat exchanger tube diameter of 5 mm, coil diameter of 18 mm and the coil pitch value of 10 mm is recommended to have lower hydrogen absorption time and higher hydrogen storage capacity. The presented MH reactor can be applied for improvement of heat exchange and absorption process in industrial MH reactors.     

Sensitivity study of alanate hydride storage system

A successful metal hydride application is closely related to an optimized design of the storage hydrogen system. In previous studies, Hardy and Anton developed scoping and numerical models describing phenomena occurring during the loading process in an alanate storage system having the configuration of a cylindrical shell, tube and fin heat exchanger. In this paper, the numerical tool is used to evaluate the influence of varying the fin thickness and the number of heat exchanger tubes on both the loading and discharging processes. The objective is to evaluate the influence of the geometric parameters of these heat exchangers on the management of heat to be removed/supplied during the sorption process and thus optimize the loading/discharging times; while having the maximum possible volume for containing the hydride and the lightest weight of the storage system. Results showed that equipping the storage system with fins fitted to the heat exchanger tubes is the best design for efficient use of the hydride bed. In the absence of fins, a number of optimal tubes is determined, however, the hydrogen uptake rate is still lower than one obtained for the finned case and there is a reduction of volumetric and gravimetric storage capacities by comparison to the finned system.     

Design and investigation of hydriding alloy based hydrogen storage reactor integrated with a pin fin tube heat exchanger

The reaction between metal hydride (MH) and hydrogen gas generates substantial amount of heat. It must be removed rapidly to sustain the reaction in the metal hydride hydrogen storage reactor. Previous studies indicate that the performance of the reactor can be improved by inserting an efficient heat exchanger design inside the metal hydride bed. In the present study, a cylindrical shaped metal hydride system containing LaNi₅, integrated with a finned tube heat exchanger assembly made of copper pin fins and tubes, is presented. A 3-D numerical model is formulated in COMSOL Multiphysics 4.4 to study the transient behavior of sorption process inside the reactor. Experimental data obtained from the literature is used to approve the legitimacy of the proposed model. Influence of various operating and geometric parameters on the total absorption time of the reactor has been investigated. It is found that hydrogen supply pressure is the most influencing factor to increase the absorption rate of hydrogen. Total absorption time of the reactor is found to be 636 s with maximum storage capacity of 1.4 wt% at the operating conditions of 15 bar H₂ gas supply pressure, heat transfer fluid temperature of 298 K and flow rate of 6.75 l/min.     

The comprehensive review for development of heat exchanger configuration design in metal hydride bed

An optimal hydrogen storage reactor should have a higher chemical reaction rate by which the heat can be exchanged as fast as possible. The configuration of heat exchanger structure design plays a crucial role in improving heat and mass transfer effect in metal hydride beds. Consequently, a variety of different metal hydride bed configurations have been investigated in experimental and simulation works for the improvement of absorption/desorption rate. In this work, the development of metal hydride bed design in recent decades has been reviewed to help the readers summarize and optimize the reactor configuration. The summarization and review of metal hydrides design can be broadly classified into five distinct categories, which are: 1) design of cooling tubes, 2) design of fins, 3) increasing and arrangement of cooling tubes, 4) other geometric design, and 5) utilization of phase change material. This work is concentrated on assessing the heat and mass transfer effectiveness of various reactor structure configurations. The superiority and weakness of different configurations are summarized to give a comparison of the heat exchange effects. Moreover, the structural parameter analysis for each configuration is also reviewed from the heat and mass transfer aspect. Finally, some recommendations are provided for future metal hydride bed structural designs.     

Hydrogen storage system based on hydride materials incorporating a helical-coil heat exchanger

Metal hydrides offer the potential to store hydrogen at modest pressures and temperatures with high volumetric efficiencies. The process of charging hydrogen into a metal powder to form the hydride is exothermic. The heat released by the reaction must be removed quickly in order to maintain a rapid charging rate. An effective method for heat removal is to embed a heat exchanger within the metal hydride bed. Here, we investigate the effectiveness of a helical coil heat exchanger tube to remove the heat generated during the absorption process. This paper presents a three-dimensional mathematical model formulated in Ansys Fluent 12.1 to evaluate the transient heat and mass transfer in a cylindrical metal hydride tank embedded with a helical-coil cooling tube. We present results from a parametric study of hydrogen storage efficiency as a function of helical coil pitch and convective heat transfer coefficient (h) within the cooling tube. We also explore the effect of adding aluminum foam to enhance the thermal conductivity of the metal hydride. The parametric study reveals that the mass of stored hydrogen is less sensitive to the coil pitch when aluminum foam is added. It is also found that the absorption rate increases with h as expected, although the rate of improvement diminishes at high values of h. Results were examined at filling times of 3 and 6 min to draw conclusions about the overall effectiveness of this hydrogen storage system. At 3 min, it is found that the addition of 5% Al foam is optimal, and h = 1000 W/m²-K is sufficient to bring the metal hydride to saturation; under these conditions a non-dimensional pitch of 0.5 maximizes the hydrogen absorption. Adding Al foam beyond 5% does not improve volumetric efficiency as the Al foam begins to displace the active hydrogen-absorbing material.     

Enhancement of hydrogen storage performance in shell and tube metal hydride tank for fuel cell electric forklift

Novel metal hydride (MH) hydrogen storage tanks for fuel cell electric forklifts have been presented in this paper. The tanks comprise a shell side equipped with 6 baffles and a tube side filled with 120 kg AB₅ alloy and 10 copper fins. The alloy manufactured by vacuum induction melting has good hydrogen storage performance, with high storage capacity of 1.6 wt% and low equilibrium pressure of 4 MPa at ambient temperature. Two types of copper fins, including disk fins and corrugated fins, and three kinds of baffles, including segmental baffles, diagonal baffles and hole baffles, were applied to enhance the heat transfer in metal hydride tanks. We used the finite element method to simulate the hydrogen refueling process in MH tanks. It was found that the optimized tank with corrugated fins only took 630 s to reach 1.5 wt% saturation level. The intensification on the tube side of tanks is an effective method to improve hydrogen storage performance. Moreover, the shell side flow field and hydrogen refueling time in MH tanks with different baffles were compared, and the simulated refueling time is in good agreement with the experimental data. The metal hydride tank with diagonal baffles shows the shortest hydrogen refueling time because of the highest velocity of cooling water. Finally, correlations regarding the effect of cooling water flow rate on the refueling time in metal hydride tanks were proposed for future industrial design.     

Dynamics of hydrogen powered CAES based gas turbine plant using sodium alanate storage system

Typical compressed air energy storage (CAES) based gas turbine plant operates on natural gas or fuel oils as fuel for its operation. However, the use of hydro-carbon fuels will contribute to carbon emissions leading to pollution of the environment. On the other hand, the use of hydrogen as fuel for the gas turbine will eliminate the carbon emissions leading to a cleaner environment. Hydrogen can be produced using renewable energy sources like wind, solar etc. Storage of hydrogen is a bottleneck for such a system. A high capacity sodium alanate metal hydride bed is used in this study to store the hydrogen. The dynamics of the CAES based gas turbine plant operating with hydrogen fuel is presented along with discharge dynamics of the metal hydride bed. The heat required for desorbing the hydrogen from the metal hydride bed is provided partly by the hot flue gas exiting from the low pressure turbine and partly by external heating. Thus some of the heat from the flue gas is extracted. A novel multiple bed strategy is employed for efficient desorption. Each bed consists of a shell and tube, with alanate in the shell and heating fluid flowing through the helical coiled tube. Hydrogen combustor is modeled using a simplified Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor (CSTR) assumption in CANTERA. The NO_x emissions in the low pressure turbine exhaust stream are presented.     

Performance analysis of a high-temperature magnesium hydride reactor tank with a helical coil heat exchanger for thermal storage

Metal hydrides are regarded as one of the most attractive options for thermal energy storage (TES) materials for concentrated solar thermal applications. Improved thermal performance of such systems is vitally determined by the effectiveness of heat exchange between the metal hydride and the heat transfer fluid (HTF). This paper presents a numerical study supported by experimental validation on a magnesium hydride reactor fitted with a helical coil heat exchanger for enhanced thermal performance. The model incorporates hydrogen absorption kinetics of ball-milled magnesium hydride, with titanium boride and expanded natural graphite additives obtained by Sievert's apparatus measurements and considers thermal diffusion within the reactor to the heat transfer fluid for a realistic representation of its operation. A detailed parametric analysis is carried out, and the outcomes are discussed, examining the ramifications of hydrogen supply pressure and its flow rate. The study identifies that the enhancement of thermal conductivity in magnesium hydride has an insignificant impact on current reactor performance.     

弹性管束型容积式热交换器的研究

本文提出了一种新型容积式热交换器,该热交换器的传热元件采用弹性管束。     

Finite element-based simulation of a metal hydride-based hydrogen storage tank

In this paper, a novel 3D flexible tool for simulation of metal hydrides-based (LaNi₅) hydrogen storage tanks is presented. The model is Finite Element-Based and considers coupled heat and mass transfer resistance through a non-uniform pressure and temperature metal hydride reactor. The governing equations were implemented and solved using the COMSOL Multiphysics simulation environment. A cylindrical reactor with different cooling system designs was simulated. The shortest reactor fill time (15 min) was obtained for a cooling design configuration consisting of twelve inner cooling tubes and an external cooling jacket. Additional simulations demonstrated that an increase of the hydride thermal conductivity can further improve the reactor dynamic performance, provided that the absorbent bed is sufficiently permeable to hydrogen.     

A novel multilayer fin structure for heat transfer enhancement in hydride‐based hydrogen storage reactor

Metal hydrides are promising means for compact hydrogen storage. However, the poor heat transfer in the tank packed with metal hydride powders often hinders the system from charging or discharging hydrogen effectively. In this investigation, a tube‐fin heat exchanger is supposed to be inserted to the tank, and an optimization problem accounting for both heat transfer enhancement and cost is formulated. We solve the problem with approximate analytical methods, and the influences of fin geometry are discussed. The comparison results support using quadratic curve‐shaped fins, whose effectiveness is also proved by the numerical simulation results. Furthermore, a novel multilayer fin structure with varying width is proposed, and the key parameters of it are discussed, including the number and the arrangement of fins. This paper is expected to provide new insights for the heat transfer enhancement design of hydride‐based hydrogen storage system.     

Honeycomb metallic structure for improving heat exchange in hydrogen storage system

A two-dimensional model for predicting heat and mass transfer in an alanate hydride reactor with metallic honeycomb structure (MHCS) heat exchanger has been developed. Using this model, a numerical study was performed to examine the influence of the MHCS’s cell size on the profiles of temperature, concentrations of the formed species, and hydrogen charging rate. The obtained results showed that the reduction of the MHCS’s cell size combined with an external cooling design configuration permits better use of the storage system. Based on this model, a comparison of the operating performance of various reactor designs was carried out. It was found that equipping the reactor with hexagonal cooling tubes clearly improved the performance of the charging process without further loss in the gravimetric and volumetric capacities of the hydrogen storage system.     

Entropy generation and its relation to heating and cooling requirements of a metal hydride hydrogen storage reactor

In this paper a metal hydride hydrogen storage reactor is analyzed from heat and mass transfer and entropy generation points of view. A transient two dimensional energy equation along with suitable reaction kinetics and entropy balance equation is solved numerically. Results are obtained keeping hydrogen flow rates constant during absorption and desorption. For a fixed mass of metal hydride in the reactor the amount of hydrogen transferred and the time in which the transfer takes place are kept fixed. Using the mathematical model the entropy generated during the process and the external cooling and heating fluid requirements are obtained. Results show how improvement in the design and/or operating conditions leads to reduced cooling and heating requirements and lower entropy generation. For the system considered in the study the internal heat transfer characteristics of the hydride bed are seen to influence the reactor performance significantly. With improved bed heat transfer the required heat transfer fluid temperature during desorption can be reduced and that during absorption can be increased significantly. This automatically leads to lower entropy generation and a more economic system operation. It is expected that the methodology proposed and the results presented in this study will be useful in the optimal design of metal hydride reactors for a variety of practical applications, including hydrogen storage.     

Numerical evaluation and the effects of geometrical and operational parameters on thermal performance of the shell and double coil tube heat exchanger

Heat exchangers are extensively used in various industries. In this study, the impact of geometric and flow parameters on the performance of a shell and double helical coil heat exchanger is studied numerically. The investigated geometric parameters include external coil pitch, internal coil pitch, internal coil diameter, and coil diameter. The influences of considered geometrical parameters are analyzed on the output temperature of the hot and cold fluid, convective heat transfer coefficient, pressure drop, and average Nusselt number. Water is considered as working fluid in both shell and tube. As an innovation, double helical coils are used instead of one in the heat exchanger. To compare the obtained results accurately, in each section, the heat transfer area (coil outer surface) is kept constant in all models. The results show that the geometrical parameters of double helical coils significantly affect the heat transfer rate.     

System simulation model for high-pressure metal hydride hydrogen storage systems

On-board hydrogen storage systems employing high-pressure metal hydrides promise advantages including high volumetric capacities and cold start capability. In this paper, we discuss the development of a system simulation model in Matlab/Simulink platform. Transient equations for mass balance and energy balance are presented. Appropriate kinetic expressions are used for the absorption/desorption reactions for the Ti_1.1CrMn metal hydride. During refueling, the bed is cooled by passing a coolant through tubes embedded within the bed while during driving, the bed is heated by pumping the radiator fluid through same set of tubes. The feasibility of using a high-pressure metal hydride storage system for automotive applications is discussed. Drive cycle simulations for a fuel cell vehicle are performed and detailed results are presented.     

Thermal modeling and performance analysis of industrial-scale metal hydride based hydrogen storage container

In this paper, a performance analysis of a metal hydride based hydrogen storage container with embedded cooling tubes during absorption of hydrogen is presented. A 2-D mathematical model in cylindrical coordinates is developed using the commercial software COMSOL Multiphysics 4.2. Numerical results obtained are found in good agreement with experimental data available in the literature. Different container geometries, depending upon the number and arrangement of cooling tubes inside the hydride bed, are considered to obtain an optimum geometry. For this optimum geometry, the effects of various operating parameters viz. supply pressure, cooling fluid temperature and overall heat transfer coefficient on the hydriding characteristics of MmNi_4.6Al_0.4 are presented. Industrial-scale hydrogen storage container with the capacity of about 150 kg of alloy mass is also modeled. In summary, this paper demonstrates the modeling and the selection of optimum geometry of a metal hydride based hydrogen storage container (MHHSC) based on minimum absorption time and easy manufacturing aspects.     

一种新型换热器流动特性的实验研究

螺旋折流板换热器是将折流板布置成与管束有某个倾斜角度 ,流体在壳程沿着螺旋折流板呈螺旋状流动的一种新型换热器。在对几个影响螺旋折流板换热器流动特性的因素进行了实验研究后 ,本文对实验结果进行了论述和分析。     

A three‐dimensional heat transfer model for thermal performance evaluation of ZrCo‐based hydride bed with embedded circular‐shaped cooling tubes

Nowadays, metal hydrides are generally deemed as one of the most potential materials that are in favor of compact hydrogen storage for industrial applications. This work was committed to evaluate the thermal performance of a circular‐shaped‐tube thin double‐layered hydrogen storage reactor using a three‐dimensional model. Finite element simulations were conducted to systematically study the influences of structural geometries, cooling patterns, and material thermophysical properties on the heat diffusion behavior under the framework of convection heat transfer. The results indicate that the proposed model effectively characterizes temperature evolutions during hydrogen absorption process. Moreover, a statistical analysis was performed to reveal the sensitivity sequence of these factors on the total thermal performance, suggesting that decreasing the hydride layer thickness, increasing the number of U‐shaped cooling tubes, accelerating the cooling fluid flow rate, and enhancing the thermal conductivity are more beneficial to the thermal performance improvement. Detailed analysis confirms the possibility of developing the present hydrogen storage tank utilizing metal hydrides for engineering practice.     

Thermal modeling of a shell and tube type evaporator with R404A

In this study, the two‐phase heat‐transfer coefficient of R404A inside horizontal tubes is analyzed through the evaporator's overall heat‐transfer coefficient, obtained using the effectiveness—Number of Transfer Units thermal design approach. This method constitutes an approximation that can be used in the evaporator's thermal design with an attempt to break some of the initial assumptions established in the heat exchanger thermal design method development. For the analysis, an experimental refrigeration system that is commercially available is built up with a shell and tube evaporator. All the experiments are performed at different evaporator pressures (270, 570 kPa), evaporator temperatures (?20, 0°C) and cooling water temperatures (20, 40°C). For these parameters, overall heat‐transfer coefficient of the heat exchanger is found in the range of 0.05–0.35 kW °C^?1. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.