Operation of Metal Hydride Hydrogen Storage Systems for Hydrogen Compression Using Solar Thermal Energy

By using a newly constructed bench-scale hydrogen energy system with renewable energy, ‘Pure Hydrogen Energy System’, the present study demonstrates the operations of a metal hydride (MH) tank for hydrogen compression as implemented through the use solar thermal energy. Solar thermal energy is used to generate hot water as a heat source of the MH tank. Thus, 70 kg of LaNi5, one of the most typical alloys used for hydrogen storage, was placed in the MH tank. We present low and high hydrogen flow rate operations. Then, the operations under winter conditions are discussed along with numerical simulations conducted from the thermal point of view. Results show that a large amount of heat (>100 MJ) is generated and the MH hydrogen compression is available.