Development and validation of a slurry model for chemical hydrogen storage in fuel cell vehicle applications

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Hydrogen Storage Engineering Center of Excellence (HSECoE) is developing models for hydrogen storage systems for fuel cell-based light duty vehicle applications for a variety of promising materials. These transient models simulate the performance of the storage system for comparison to the DOE's Technical Targets and a set of four drive cycles. PNNL developed models to simulate the performance and suitability of slurry-based chemical hydrogen storage materials. The storage systems of both a representative exothermic system based on ammonia borane and an endothermic system based on alane were developed and modeled in Simulink®. Once complete, the reactor and radiator components of the model were validated with experimental data. The system design parameters were adjusted to allow the model to successfully meet a highway cycle, an aggressive cycle, a cold-start cycle, and a hot drive cycle. Finally, a sensitivity analysis was performed to identify the range of material properties where these DOE targets and drive cycles could be met. Materials with a heat of reaction >11 kJ mol−1 H2 generated and a slurry hydrogen capacity of >11.4% will meet the on-board efficiency and gravimetric capacity targets, respectively.