Numerical study of heat and mass transfer processes in a metal hydride reactor for hydrogen purification

• We model H2 purification process in metal hydride reactors with aluminium foam.
• We consider a method of H2 purification based on filtering the mixture through a metal hydride bed.
• The use of aluminium foam allows us to realise a more effective system for hydrogen purification.
• The effects of the various parameters were studied.

The present paper describes a numerical study of heat and mass transfer processes in a metal hydride reactor for hydrogen purification with aluminium foam. A numerical simulation was done with the help of the mathematical model, which had been used previously for a numerical simulation of heat and mass transfer processes in different types of metal hydride reactors during sorption/desorption processes. The results illustrate that the major factors that reduce the rate of sorption, and consequently the efficiency of the system, are increasing the temperature of the reactor and the pressure drop, which is due to filtering the mixture through a metal hydride bed with low permeability. It is shown that the use of aluminium foam allows us to realise a more effective system for hydrogen purification from impurities, compared to a case without aluminium foam, while the volumetric capacity of the system is reduced slightly (9%). Increasing pressure at the reactor inlet also increases the efficiency of the system.