Influence of heat exchanger structure on hydrogen absorption-desorption performance of hydrogen storage vessel

The influence of heat exchanger structure on hydrogen absorption-desorption performance of hydrogen storage vessel was studied, in which the AB5 (La0.25Ce0.75Ni4.4Al0.1Mn0.1Co0.4) hydrogen storage alloy was used as a typical representative. In order to obtain the data on reaction enthalpy, the PCT curve of the alloy was measured with three different temperatures, and the linear fitting was carried out according to the Van't Hoff relation curve. The SMCR (Spiral-mini-channel Reactor) reactor structure was adopted. The heat transfer method and its simplified model were studied by finite element method to explore the effect of size of heat transfer structure, particularly for heat pipe diameter, on the hydrogen absorption-desorption performance of hydrogen storage alloy in the vessel. •AB5-type La0.25Ce0.75Ni4.4Al0.1Mn0.1Co0.4 alloy is prepared to study hydrogen storage thermodynamic property.•A new spiral mini channel reactor structure is designed to store hydrogen storage alloys for practical application.•A numerical simulation model is established to study the heat conduction and dissipation performance of the vessel.•Effect of heat transfer structure on average reaction fraction and heat effect of hydrogen absorption-desorption is studied.