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 range1, 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.