Numerical analysis of the effects of particle radius and porosity on hydrogen absorption performances in metal hydride tank

Xi Lin, Qi Zhu, Haiyan Leng, Hongguang Yang, Tao Lyu and Qian Li

Applied Energy, 2019, vol. 250, issue C, 1065-1072

Abstract: Slow hydrogen absorption rate and low capacity of a metal hydride tank are the main bottlenecks restricting the practical applications of hydrogen energy. It is crucial to avoid of reducing system gravimetric/volumetric capacity by the additional components for enhancing the hydrogen absorption rate. In this work, we present a new method to increase the hydrogen absorption rate on the basis of the influence of particle radius and porosity to the performance of a LaNi5 tank. A model considering the effects of volume expansion on mass, heat transfer and kinetics is proposed and solved by the finite element method, which constructs the relationship of the hydrogen absorption rate of a metal hydride tank with particle radius and porosity. The results indicate that larger particle radius and higher porosity is of benefit to the hydrogen absorption reaction. Compared with the model without volume expansion, a slightly slower hydrogen absorption rate is given by the model with volume expansion, which is attributed to the decreased thermal diffusivity. The simulation results obtained by the model with volume expansion agree well with the experimental data. The LaNi5 tank is further optimized based on the model with volume expansion, from which the hydrogen absorption time at 90% of maximum hydrogen capacity can be reduced from 1394.12 to 474.83 s when the particle radius is 100 μm and porosity is 0.63.

Keywords: Hydrogen storage; Metal hydride tank; Particle radius and porosity; Volume expansion; Finite element method (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261919308426
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:250:y:2019:i:c:p:1065-1072

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 405891/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.04.181

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Energy is currently edited by J. Yan

More articles in Applied Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().