Experimental study on absorption and desorption behavior of a novel metal hydride reactor for stationary hydrogen storage applications

Metal hydrides have captured significant attention for hydrogen storage because of their high energy density and safety. However, the performance of these systems is largely influenced by the design of the storage reactor. In this perspective, a novel compact, lightweight, and effective multi tube MH reactor was designed, fabricated, and experimentally tested. The absorption and desorption behavior of the newly developed Ti_0.9Zr_0.1Mn_1.46V_0.45Fe_0.09 alloy using the proposed MH reactor for hydrogen storage applications was analysed. At 30 bar supply pressure, the MH reactor absorbed 164.3 g (1.58 wt.%) of hydrogen in 894 s and delivered specific energy at an average rate of 94.7 W/kg_MH. Further, the reactor released 153.6 g (1.48 wt.%) of hydrogen in 2246 s, when the desorption temperature was set at 50 ^°C. Moreover, the parametric study revealed that by raising the supply pressure from 10 bar to 20 bar and 30 bar, the stored capacity was improved by 11 % and 18.9 %, respectively, whereas the absorption time was drastically reduced by 43 % and 61.5 %, respectively. Furthermore, the fabricated reactor achieved gravimetric and volumetric storage densities of 0.75 % and 20.6 kg/m³ of H₂. Also, the MH reactor achieved a maximum hydrogen storage efficiency of 82.3 %. Finally, the comparative results indicated that the MH reactor studied in this work demonstrated a faster hydrogen release rate compared to other medium to large capacity MH reactors reported in the literature.