Experimental study on multi tube metal hydride reactor for medium temperature hydrogen and thermochemical energy storage applications

Shubham Parashar, P. Muthukumar, E. Anil Kumar and Atul Kumar Soti

Renewable Energy, 2025, vol. 242, issue C

Abstract: Metal hydrides are increasingly being considered as a compelling alternative for thermochemical energy storage in concentrated solar power applications due to their higher energy density. The present experimental study focused on the design and performance testing of a lab scale multi tube metal hydride reactor designed to release and store both thermal energy and hydrogen within a temperature range of 250–430 °C. A parametric study is carried out to analyse the impact of various operating parameters on the performance of the proposed reactor filled with 4.8 kg of Mg2Ni. Further, the performance of the reactor is analysed by measuring the specific thermal discharge output, exergic temperature lift, and effectiveness of the developed system. The outcomes indicate that the energy storage density varies between 294.1 kJ/kgMH and 437.9 kJ/kgMH under various operating conditions, with an average temperature gain varying between 24 °C and 36 °C. However, due to the adequate heat upgrade, the heat to power conversion efficiency was varied between 44 % and 52 %. Further, the achieved maximum specific discharge output of the stored heat was found to be 135.6 W/kgMH under the 30 bar supply pressure. Also, the maximum exergic temperature lift and the effectiveness of the developed system were found to be 15.9 °C and 0.42. Furthermore, the authors recommend scaling up the system with a higher weight ratio to overcome the sensible heat losses.

Keywords: Multi tube reactor; Energy storage; Metal hydrides; Thermochemical energy; Mg2Ni (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:242:y:2025:i:c:s0960148125000126

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2025.122350

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