Design of a Metal Hydride Cartridge Heated by PEMFC Exhaust

Tomoya Ezawa, Shan Miao (), Koki Harano, Masami Sumita, Noboru Katayama and Kiyoshi Dowaki ()
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Tomoya Ezawa: Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Graduate School of Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science, 2641 Yamazaki, Noda 278-8510, Japan
Shan Miao: Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Graduate School of Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science, 2641 Yamazaki, Noda 278-8510, Japan
Koki Harano: Department of Electrical Engineering, Graduate of Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science, 2641 Yamazaki, Noda 278-8510, Japan
Masami Sumita: Department of Electrical Engineering, Graduate of Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science, 2641 Yamazaki, Noda 278-8510, Japan
Noboru Katayama: Department of Electrical Engineering, Graduate of Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science, 2641 Yamazaki, Noda 278-8510, Japan
Kiyoshi Dowaki: Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Graduate School of Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science, 2641 Yamazaki, Noda 278-8510, Japan

Energies, 2025, vol. 18, issue 13, 1-18

Abstract: This study investigates the structure of a metal hydride (MH) cartridge as a hydrogen storage tank for small-scale fuel cells (FCs). This cartridge is designed to be stacked and used in layers, allowing flexible capacity adjustment according to demand. MH enables compact and safe hydrogen storage for small-scale fuel cell (FC) applications due to its high energy density and low-pressure operation. However, because hydrogen desorption from MH is an endothermic reaction, an external heat supply is required for stable performance. To enhance both the heat transfer efficiency and cartridge usability, we propose a heat supply method that utilizes waste heat from an air-cooled proton-exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). The proposed cartridge incorporates four cylindrical MH tanks that require uniform heat transfer. Therefore, we proposed the tank arrangements within the cartridge to minimize the non-uniformity of heat transfer distribution on the surface. The flow of exhaust air from the PEMFC into the cartridge was analyzed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. In addition, an empirical correlation for the Nusselt number was developed to estimate the heat transfer coefficient. As a result, it was concluded that the heat utilization rate of the exhaust heat flowing into the cartridge was 13.2%.

Keywords: metal hydride; metal hydride tank; PEMFC; heat transfer; thermal coupling; heat recovery; CFD (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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