See the Forest, Ignore the Trees: A Minimalist Approach to Metal Hydride Tank Modelling Maximizing General Practical Usability

Abstract

A simple and practical method for describing transient metal hydride tank behaviour in fuel cell energy systems is outlined, requiring only a minimum of fundamental thermodynamic and kinetic input data. The solution is developed top-down by means of the generic pressure-time course of hydrogen release from a metal hydride tank that is coupled to a fuel cell.This approach towards a comprehensive model allows for the untangling of engineering and chemistry issues and offers an alternative to the transient simulation of metal hydride bed temperature distribution. While a practitioner of the art may benefit from that result in its own right, the essence of this work rests with the paradigm of understanding the problem.