Modeling and optimization of multi-tubular metal hydride beds for efficient hydrogen storage

This work presents a novel systematic approach for the optimal design of a multi-tubular metal hydride tank, containing up to nine tubular metal hydride reactors, used for hydrogen storage. The tank is designed to store enough amount of hydrogen for 25 km range 1 1 Based on data from Honda FCX Clarity. , for a fuel cell vehicle. A detailed 3D Cartesian, mathematical model is developed and validated against a 2D cylindrical developed by Kikkinides et al. [1]. The objective is to find the optimal process design so as to increase the overall thermal efficiency, and thus minimize the storage time. Optimization results indicate that almost 90% improvement of the storage time can be achieved, over the case where the tank is not optimized and for a minimum storage capacity of 99% of the maximum value.