Numerical Study of Dynamic Two-Dimensional Heat and Mass Transfer for Hydrogen Storage in a Metal Hydride Bed

A study of a two-dimensional dynamic complex heat and mass transfer in a metal hydrogen reactor (LaNi5-H2) is presented in this paper. A mathematical model has been established and solved numerically by implicit finite difference method. The numerical simulation is applied to the transition of temperature and density of the metal hydride in the reactor and sensitivity of the model is studied for some operational input conditions such as inlet hydrogen temperature and the temperature of cooling fluid. This simulation also permits us to study the effect of the heat convection and the validity of the assumption of local thermal equilibrium between solid and gas. According to the numerical simulation results, the temperature of cooling fluid and the temperature of interring hydrogen are two important variables in hydrogen storage capacity.

Keywords:

Hydrogen storage , Heat and mass transfer , Metal hydride bed , Mathematical modeling