Characterisation of pressure‐concentration‐temperature profiles for metal hydride hydrogen storage alloys with model development

Abstract

Metal hydride (MH) alloys have been applied to hydrogen storage and various energy conversion systems such as refrigeration, heat pump and heat transformer. However, to facilitate and efficiently investigate efficiently a particular application, an MH alloy must firstly be characterised with a purposely built test facility to measure profiles of pressure, MH hydrogen concentration and temperature (PCT). Obtaining detailed PCT profiles or curves could be an arduous and expensive task as each isothermal hydrogen absorption or desorption line requires hundreds of measurement points. It is thus desirable to develop an accurate correlative model for the PCT profiles with limited measurements of thermophysical property data for the purpose of characterisation of each MH alloy. This correlative model or characterisation process has been developed and is described in detail in this article. The correlative PCT MH alloy profiles can cover all applicable hydrogen storage phase regions of α, α + β and β as well as the phase transition dome curve and critical point such that a PCT phase diagram for a particular MH alloy can be depicted and characterised. As an application example, the correlative model is applied to predict an MH alloy's hydrogen storage capacity and hysteresis at a specific MH temperature. It has been discovered that each of these two parameters shows comparative trends in variation with reduced temperature. Correspondingly, for each parameter, a correlative function with reduced temperature has been produced. The MH alloy characterisation process is an essential step towards a detailed dynamic MH energy system modelling, simulation and optimisation as well as experimental investigation.