Performance investigation of a multi-stage sorption hydrogen compressor

Among several thermodynamic applications of metal hydrides, sorption hydrogen compressor (SHC) is more attractive for real-time application due to ease of construction and operation. In the present study, a four-stage sorption hydrogen compressor is proposed with detailed working principle for the compression output of >500 bar pressure. By adopting the screening methodology, four metal hydrides, i.e. La_0.9Ce_0.1Ni₅, Ti_0.99Zr_0.01V_0.43Fe_0.99Cr_0.05Mn_1.5, MmNi₅ and TiCrMn are selected for stages – 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively with the supply temperature of 298 K and discharge temperatures of 373 K. The performance of sorption hydrogen compressor is estimated through finite volume approach and thermodynamic simulation in terms of variations in metal hydride bed pressure, temperature, hydrogen transmission, compressor work and efficiency. The numerical model is validated with experimentally measured metal hydride bed temperature and hydrogen concentration for single-stage hydrogen compressor, which are observed to be in good agreement. The cycle time of multi-stage SHC is predicted to be ~100 min with the maximum compression ratio of 73 with an overall efficiency of 10.62% employing 0.5 kg of each alloy and supply pressure of 9.5 bar. It is also observed that the discharge temperature greatly influences system performance. The dynamic performance of the system is also estimated with the implementation of simulation generated property data and observed that the performance parameters increased with the progression of hydrogen transmission.