Metal Hydrides for High-Temperature Power Generation

Energies

Ewa C. E. Rönnebro¹  Greg Whyatt¹  Michael Powell¹  Matthew Westman¹  Feng (Richard) Zheng¹  Zhigang Zak Fang² 

[1] Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA 99352, USA; E-Mails:;Department of Metallurgical Engineering, University of Utah, 135 S. 1460 E., Room 412, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA; E-Mail:

关键词: metal hydrides;    thermal energy storage;    hydrogen storage;    hydrogen diffusion rate;    thermal conductivity;    scale-up;    solar technologies;   

DOI  :  10.3390/en8088406

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Metal hydrides can be utilized for hydrogen storage and for thermal energy storage (TES) applications. By using TES with solar technologies, heat can be stored from sun energy to be used later, which enables continuous power generation. We are developing a TES technology based on a dual-bed metal hydride system, which has a high-temperature (HT) metal hydride operating reversibly at 600–800 °C to generate heat, as well as a low-temperature (LT) hydride near room temperature that is used for hydrogen storage during sun hours until there is the need to produce electricity, such as during night time, a cloudy day or during peak hours. We proceeded from selecting a high-energy density HT-hydride based on performance characterization on gram-sized samples scaled up to kilogram quantities with retained performance. COMSOL Multiphysics was used to make performance predictions for cylindrical hydride beds with varying diameters and thermal conductivities. Based on experimental and modeling results, a ~200-kWh/m³ bench-scale prototype was designed and fabricated, and we demonstrated the ability to meet or exceed all performance targets.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.