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Thermal Science and Engineering Progress
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Thermal and compressor-driven metal hydride based coupled system for
thermal storage, cooling and thermal upgradation
Sunku Prasad Jenne , Sayantan Jana , Muthukumar Palanisamy *
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, Assam 781039, India
A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T
Keywords: In this study, a lumped model is developed for predicting the dynamic characteristics of coupled reactor system
Metal hydride consisting of MgH2 as thermal energy storage material and MmNi4.6Al0.4H6 as hydrogen storage material. The present
Lumped model system is designed for a thermal energy storage capacity of 10 MJ. The effect of inlet temperature of heat transfer
Thermal energy storage
fluid on charging and discharging behavior of the system is discussed in detail. The results revealed that the
Heat up-gradation
Cooling
simultaneous cooling and heat up-gradation for the case of the thermal-driven system is limited by the amount of
Tri-generation hydrogen transferred between the paired reactors, which calls for the aid of a compressor. A compressor-driven metal
hydride tri-generation system i.e., thermal energy storage, cooling and heat upgradation, is proposed and the per
formance of the integrated system is predicted in terms of COP and energy storage efficiency. The compressor-driven
system yielded a maximum COP and a maximum thermal efficiency of 3.85 and 80.28%, respectively.
reactions for energy storage due to their high energy density (up to 2.814
MJ/kg of hydride) and a wide range of operating temperatures (up to
1. Introduction 1100 ◦ C) with no environmental encroachment [3]. Metal hydride based
thermal energy storage (MH TES) system offers a volumetric storage
The world is progressing towards renewable energy resources because density of about 90 kWhth/m3, which is 3.6 times more than the U.S.
of increase in demand for energy, price of fossil fuels and global warming Department of Energy SunShot target [4].
effect. A major shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources is Metal hydride TES system is operated in coupled reactor mode. Nasri
needed to save the environment from global warming and climate change. et al. [5] developed a lumped thermal model and performed simulation
Solar, wind, tidal, and geothermal are the primary resources explored for MH assisted thermal energy storage unit for high-temperature fuel
effectively so far, where the solar energy is being the most prevalent op cell vehicle. They engaged two different metal hydride alloys namely
tion for obvious reasons. Solar energy can be converted into electricity in LaNi4.75Al0.25 as high temperature metal hydride (HTMH) and
two ways i.e., using solar photovoltaic or concentrated solar thermal LmNi4.91Sn0.15 as low temperature metal hydride (LTMH). High-
power technology. Both technologies suffer from the intermittent nature temperature alloy served the purpose of energy storage whereas, the
of solar energy. Possibly this issue in concentrated solar thermal power low-temperature alloy was used for battery cooling purposes. The re
(CSTP) technology can be addressed by integrating a thermal energy ported increase in the driving range of the fuel cell was 17% at − 20 ◦ C
storage (TES) system. During sunshine hours, the excess thermal energy ambient temperature with the inclusion of a MH-based heat recovery
available is stored in the TES system and the stored energy is retrieved for unit. Paya et al. [6] performed experiments and simulations on coupled
producing electricity during the off-sun hours that makes the CSTP plant bed metal hydride reactor for the thermally driven cooling system at
to operate continuously throughout day and night. Thermal energy can be heat source/ambient/sink temperatures of 130/35/20 ◦ C. The consid
stored in three different ways: sensible heat storage (SHS), latent heat ered alloys were LmNi4.91Sn0.15 (HTMH) and Ti0.99Zr0.01V0.43
storage (LHS), and thermochemical energy storage (TCES) [1]. Among all, Fe0.09Cr0.05Mn1.5 (LTMH). They reported a mean specific cooling power
the TCES system offers high energy density, wide operating temperatures, of 303 W/kg of cooling alloy. Mellouli et al. [7] developed a lumped
and long-term storage [2]. The high-temperature TCES systems enable the parameter model of a coupled reactor for the thermally driven cooling
most efficient high-temperature power generation cycles (i.e., Stirling system. The system employed MmNi4.5Al0.4 and MmNi4.2Al0.1Fe0.7 as
engine, supercritical Rankine cycle, supercritical CO2 power cycle, etc.). HTMH and LTMH, respectively. They found that the average system
Metal hydrides (MHs) are the most promising solid–gas thermochemical
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: pmkumar@[Link] (M. Palanisamy).
[Link]
Received 5 February 2020; Received in revised form 3 July 2020; Accepted 28 November 2020
Available online 3 December 2020
2451-9049/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
