Optimization of heat transfer device and analysis of heat & mass transfer on the finned multi-tubular metal hydride tank

Based on the previous studies on heat and mass transfer characteristics of hydride tank, whether the reaction heat of hydride bed can be removed quickly is a determinant factor of the reaction rate. As the core part of reaction system, the heat transfer optimization in the tank can significantly enhance the reaction rate. In this paper, the optimization of heat transfer fins for a finned multi-tubular metal hydride tank is presented, and the heat transfer equations of tank with various configuration fins (radius, thickness and number) are derived. By analyzing the effects of fin configurations on the heat transfer device, we found that the thermal resistance of reaction system reduces with the increase of the fin radius, thickness and number. In order to study transient reaction process inside the hydride tank with various configuration and operation conditions, a 3-D mathematical model is developed and validated based on the experimental data from literature. Through simulation and optimization on hydride tank with different configurations, we got that the fin number has the most significant positive effect on the absorption reaction process. The numerical simulation results show that the hydrogen absorption rate is proportional to hydrogen pressure, heat transfer coefficient and fluid flow velocity, and the hydrogen pressure has the most remarkable impact among these factors. The H₂ absorption is accomplished in 1720 s at 1 MPa, and the absorption reaction is completed within 2000 s at the H₂ pressure of 0.8 MPa. Moreover, the maximum difference in absorption completion time is only 190 s under different heat transfer coefficients and fluid flow velocities.     

Design of a large-scale metal hydride based hydrogen storage reactor: Simulation and heat transfer optimization

An optimized design for a 210 kg alloy, TiMn alloy based hydrogen storage system for stationary application is presented. A majority of the studies on metal hydride hydrogen systems reported in literature are based on system scale less than 10 kg, leaving questions on the design and performance of large-scale systems unanswered. On the basis of sensitivity to various design and operating parameters such as thermal conductivity, porosity, heat transfer coefficient etc., a comprehensive design methodology is suggested. Following a series of performance analyses, a multi-tubular shell and tube type storage system is selected for the present application which completes the absorption process in 900 s and the desorption process in 2000 s at a system gravimetric capacity of 0.7% which is a vast improvement over similar studies. The study also indicates that after fifty percent reaction completion, heat transfer ceases to be the major controlling factor in the reaction. This could help prevent over-designing systems on the basis of heat transfer, and ensure optimum system weight.     

Experimental studies on industrial scale metal hydride based hydrogen storage system with embedded cooling tubes

The present article reports the activation and testing of large scale metal hydride based hydrogen storage system (MHHSS) for industrial application. The metal hydride reactor is fabricated using SS316 material with 99 embedded cooling tube and filled with 40 kg of LaNi_4.7Al_0.3. The activation was carried out by successive absorption and desorption processes. In the third absorption cycle, MHHSS had absorbed 552.356 g of hydrogen to reach a maximum storage capacity of 1.4 wt% at 40 bar pressure and 30 °C temperature. The testing of MHHSS was carried out by varying H₂ supply pressure, absorption and desorption temperatures and heat transfer fluid (HTF) flow rate. It was observed that the supply pressure has significant effect on absorption rate, and the optimum supply pressure was observed in the range of 10–15 bar. Similarly, during the desorption cycle, optimum desorption temperature was found in the range of 80–90 °C. The optimum flow velocity for HTF was observed in the range of 20–30 lpm.     

Numerical analysis of heat and mass transfer during absorption of hydrogen in metal hydride based hydrogen storage tanks

In this paper, hydriding in a cylindrical metal hydride hydrogen storage tank containing HWT5800 (Ti_0.98Zr_0.02V_0.43Fe_0.09Cr_0.05Mn_1.5) is numerically studied with a two-dimensional mathematical model. The heat and mass transfer of this model is computed by finite difference method. The effects of supply pressure, cooling fluid temperature, overall heat transfer coefficient and height to the radius ratio of the tank (H/R) on the hydriding in the hydrogen storage tank are studied. It is found that hydride formation initially takes place uniformly all over the bed and hydriding processes take place at a slower rate at the core region. Supply pressure, cooling fluid temperature and overall heat transfer coefficient play significant roles during the absorption of hydrogen. At the H/R = 2 both maximum bed temperature and the average bed temperature are the highest, and the hydride bed takes the longest time to saturate.     

Simulation of transient heat and mass transfer during hydrogen sorption in cylindrical metal hydride beds

A CFD analysis of heat and mass transfer in cylindrical metal hydride beds is carried out using the commercial code Fluent 6.2. The effect of bulk diffusion is considered for mass transfer in the solid phase. Temporal and spatial variations of temperature and concentration in hydride bed are plotted. Emphasis is given to monitor the motion of hydrogen within the bed and to the influence of the L/D$L/D$ ratio and porosity. It is observed that a concentration variation in the bed is the driving force for hydrogen flow in hydride beds. The gas movement is observed to be from saturated cooler peripheral region towards the unsaturated hotter core region of the bed.     

Modelling and experimental results of heat transfer in a metal hydride store during hydrogen charge and discharge

A numerical model for the transient hydrogen charge/discharge rates and thermal behaviour of metal hydride stores was developed and verified against experiments using a cylindrical reactor filled with AB₅-type metal hydride. The model assumes local thermal equilibrium between the gas and solid phases, and incorporates the pressure and temperature-dependent hydrogen reaction rates, as well as heat transfer in the porous metal hydride bed. The model was verified through experimental data. The experiments were performed using a unit with hydrogen storage capacity of 130 Nl H₂; the store was submerged in an isothermal water bath. Experiments at different water bath temperatures and charge/discharge hydrogen pressures indicated a relation between charge/discharge time and these parameters. The reactor's ability to deliver a constant hydrogen flow at different water bath temperatures was experimentally investigated. During simulations it was found that the model applied is sensitive to perturbations of some of its parameters; activation energy of absorption, effective conductivity and heat of reaction were found to be the most important ones. The charge and discharge performances of the store are controlled by the reaction rate in the first half-part of the H absorption/desorption experiments and by a heat transfer in the second half-part of charge/discharge.     

Computational study of metal hydride cooling system

A computational study of a metal hydride cooling system working with MmNi_4.6Al_0.4/MmNi_4.6Fe_0.4 hydride pair is presented. The unsteady, two-dimensional mathematical model in an annular cylindrical configuration is solved numerically for predicting the time dependent conjugate heat and mass transfer characteristics between coupled reactors. The system of equations is solved by the fully implicit finite volume method (FVM). The effects of constant and variable wall temperature boundary conditions on the reaction bed temperature distribution, hydrogen concentration, and equilibrium pressures of the reactors are investigated. A dynamic correlation of the pressure–concentration–temperature plot is presented. At the given operating temperatures of 363/298/278 K (T_H/T_M/T_C), the cycle time for the constant and variable wall temperature boundary conditions of a single-stage and single-effect metal  hydride system are found to be 1470.0 s and 1765.6 s, respectively. The computational results are compared with the experimental data reported in the literature for LaNi_4.61Mn_0.26Al_0.13/La_0.6Y_0.4Ni_4.8Mn_0.2 hydride pair and a good agreement between the two was observed.     

Simulation of heat transfer in a metal hydride reactor with aluminium foam

A 1-D model has been developed to evaluate various designs of metal hydride reactors with planar, cylindrical or spherical geometry. It simulates a cycling loop (absorption–desorption) focusing attention on the heat transfer inside the hydride bed, which is considered the rate-limiting factor. We have validated this model with experimental data collected on two reactors, respectively, containing 1 and 25 g of _LaNi5${\mathrm{LaNi}}_5$, the second being equipped with aluminium foam. The simulation program reproduces accurately our experimental results. The impact of the foam cell size has been studied. According to our model, the use of aluminium foam allows the reactor diameter to be increased by 7.5 times, without losing its performance.     

Heat and mass transfer studies on plate fin-and-elliptical tube type metal hydride reactors

In the present work a two-dimensional transient model to study the heat and mass transfer characteristics of plate fin-and-elliptical tube type metal hydride reactors is presented. The relevant governing equations are solved numerically. The heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop on external fin side are estimated using available correlations. Effects of external fluid flow rate and temperature on the fin-and-tube metal hydride reactor are studied. Results show that the use of elliptical metal hydride tubes in place of the standard circular tubes give rise to compact systems in addition to considerably lower fan power consumption, with very little change in the average heat and hydrogen transfer rates. Even though the performance of the reactor depends very much on the fin-and-tube arrangement, for all the arrangements considered here, the reactors with elliptical tubes were found to perform better in terms of compactness, weight and fan power consumption. Considering the aspects of mean hydride bed thickness, tube wall thickness, tube mass, compactness, heat and hydrogen transfer rates and fan power consumption, elliptical tubes of 0.6 eccentricity appear to offer the best solution for the given application.     

Investigation on the influences of heat transfer enhancement measures in a thermally driven metal hydride heat pump

Metal hydride heat pump (MHHP) can be utilized in a variety of applications and shows great potential in recovery of low-grade heat. Being its kernel component, the reactors should facilitate good heat and mass transfer to achieve satisfactory system performance. In this paper, the influences of certain heat transfer enhancement measures for the reactors were investigated by numerical simulation and thermodynamic analysis. Three types of reactors packed with metal hydride powder, metal hydride powder/Al foam and metal hydride compact were taken for discussion. As shown in the simulation results, for the MHHP adopting heat transfer enhancement, the coefficient of performance tends to reduce slightly while the specific heating power increases remarkably. Therefore, these measures work positively and are recommended for use in heat pump applications.     

Impacts of external heat transfer enhancements on metal hydride storage tanks

The rate at which hydrogen can be drawn from a metal hydride tank is strongly influenced by the rate at which heat can be transferred to the reaction zone. In this work, the impacts of external convection resistance on thermodynamic behaviour inside the metal hydride tank are examined. A one-dimensional resistive analysis and two-dimensional transient model are used to determine the impact of external fins on the ability of a metal hydride tank to deliver hydrogen at a specified flow rate. For the particular metal hydride alloy (LaNi₅) and tank geometry studied, it was found that the fins have a large impact on the pressure of the hydrogen gas within the tank when a periodic hydrogen demand is imposed. Model results suggest that the metal hydride alloy at the centre of the tank can be removed to reduce weight and cost, without detrimental effects to the performance of the system.     

Enhancement of heat and mass transfer characteristics of metal hydride reactor for hydrogen storage using various nanofluids

The execution of metal hydride reactor (MHR) for storage of hydrogen is greatly affected by thermal effects occurred throughout the sorption of hydrogen. In this paper, based on different governing equations, a numerical model of MHR filled by MmNi_4.6Al_0.4 is formed using ANSYS Fluent for hydrogen absorption process. The validation of model is done by relating its simulation outcomes with published experimental results and found a good agreement with a deviation of less than 5%; hence present model accuracy is considered to be more than 95%. For extraction or supply of heat, water or oil is extensively used in MHR during the absorption or the desorption process so as to improve the competency of the system. Since nanofluid (mixture of base fluid and nanoparticles) has a higher heat transfer characteristics, in this paper the nanofluid is used in place of the conventional heat transfer fluid in MHR. Further the numerical model of MHR is modified with nanofluid as heat extraction fluid and results are presented. The Al₂O₃/H₂O, CuO/H₂O and MgO/H₂O nanofluids are selected and simulations are carried out. The results are obtained for different parameters like nanoparticle material, hydrogen concentration, supply pressure and cooling fluid temperature. It is seen that 5 vol% CuO/H₂O nanofluid is thermally superior to Al₂O₃/H₂O and MgO/H₂O nanofluid. The heat transfer rate improves by the increment in the supply pressure of hydrogen as well as decrement in temperature of nanofluid. The CuO/H₂O nanofluid increases the heat transfer rate of MHR up to 10% and the hydrogen absorption time is improved by 9.5%. Thus it is advantageous to use the nanofluid as a heat transfer cooling fluid for the MHR to store hydrogen.     

Heat and mass transfer in vacuum membrane distillation

In the membrane distillation (MD) literature, the heat transfer coefficients of the boundary layers are usually estimated from well known heat transfer empirical correlations developed for non-porous and rigid heat exchangers. A difference between the mechanism of heat transfer in MD systems, which is coupled with transmembrane mass transfer, and the mechanism of heat transfer in “pure” heat exchangers is expected to exist. Vacuum membrane distillation has been experimentally studied in a capillary membrane module and the heat transfer coefficients have been evaluated in both the lumen and the shell side of the membrane module. A critical review of the most frequently used heat transfer empirical correlations in MD systems is presented. Finally, the experimental results obtained in this paper are compared to those of literature, in order to test their applicability in membrane distillation systems.     

Numerical simulation of heat and mass transfer in metal hydride hydrogen storage tanks for fuel cell vehicles

This paper presents a two-dimensional mathematical model to optimized heat and mass transfer in metal hydride storage tanks (hereinafter MHSTs) for fuel cell vehicles, equipped with finned spiral tube heat exchangers. This model which considers complex heat and mass transfer was numerically solved and validated by comparison with experimental data and a good agreement is obtained.     

Heat management on rectangular metal hydride tanks for green building applications

A numerical study fully validated with solid experimental results is presented and analysed, regarding the hydrogenation process of rectangular metal hydride tanks for green building applications. Based on a previous study conducted by the authors, where the effective heat management of rectangular tanks by using plain embedded cooling tubes was analysed, in the current work the importance of using extended surfaces to enhance the thermal properties and the hydrogenation kinetics is analysed. The studied extended surfaces (fins) were of rectangular shape; and several combinations regarding the number of fins and the fin thickness were examined and analysed. The values for fin thickness were 2-3-5 and 8 mm and the number of fins studied were 10-14-18 and 20. To evaluate the effect of the heat management process, a modified version of a variable named as Non-Dimensional Conductance (NDC) is introduced and studied. A novel AB₂-Laves phase intermetallic was considered as the metal hydride for the study. The results of the hydrogenation behaviour for the introduced parameters (fin number and thickness) showed that the rectangular tank equipped with the cooling tubes in combination with 14 fins of 5 mm fin thickness has the capability of storing hydrogen over 90% of its theoretical capacity in less than 30 min.     

Analysis of a metal hydride reactor for hydrogen storage

In this paper a two-dimensional model of an annular cylindrical reactor filled with metal hydride suitable for hydrogen storage is presented. Comparison of the computed bed temperatures with published experimental data shows a reasonably good agreement except for the initial period. Effects of hydrogen pressure and external fluid temperatures on heat transfer and entropy generation are obtained. Results show that the time required for hydrogen charging and discharging is higher when the thermal capacity of the reactor wall is considered. The time required for absorption and desorption can be reduced significantly by varying the hydrogen gas pressure and external fluid temperatures. However, along with reduction in time the entropy generated during hydrogen storage and discharge increases significantly. Results also show that for the given input conditions, heat transfer between the external fluid and hydride bed is the main source of entropy generation.     

Identifying heat and mass transfer characteristics of metal hydride reactor during adsorption: Improved formulation about parameter analysis

Transport process affects the performance of a metal hydride reactor significantly. Therefore in a former paper presented by the same authors, two parameters, which are known as heat transfer controlled reaction rate and mass transfer controlled reaction rate, were defined to account for this effect and assist the design of the reactors. However, a few simplifications were adopted in that article, which may result in some errors. In order to achieve better accuracy and clarity, more factors such as the external convection heat transfer and propagation of reaction front were considered here in the formulation of the parameters. Then numerical simulations for the adsorption in a tubular reactor were carried out and the situation under which parameter analysis can be applied was discussed. More characteristics in the process were revealed by the newly formulated parameters, which could be seen from the comparison of the results by parameter analysis and numerical simulation.     

Effect of pressure, composition and temperature characteristics on thermal response and overall reaction rates in a metal hydride tank

The effects of pressure, composition and temperature (PCT) characteristics on the thermal response and overall reaction rates in a packed bed reactor of metal hydrides have been investigated at both constant and variable hydrogen pressures. LaNi₅ particles were used as the alloys for metal hydride formation inside a 50 mm i.d. × 185 mm height cylindrical reactor. Predictions of the thermal response and overall reaction rates were also carried out using three distinct models for the PCT characteristics: one based on Van’t Hoff’s equation [refer to Mayer et al. J Less Common Met 1987; 131: 235-44], another developed by [Jemni and Nasrallah. Int J Hydrogen Energy 1995; 20: 43-52, 881-891] and a new model and compared with the experimental results. The transient local bed temperature and reaction rate obtained from the predictions strongly depend on the model chosen for the PCT characteristics. Our new model provides good agreement with experiments.     

Numerical simulation of heat and mass transfer during the absorption of hydrogen in a magnesium hydride

This paper presents a numerical work aiming at the prediction of the characteristics of an industrial tank filled with hydrides for hydrogen storage. A validation of the method is given and is followed by the resolution of an example which shows the importance of achieving a three-dimensional modelling for the design of an industrial tank. Finally, recent results obtained on a magnesium hydride laboratory tank are given.