AN EXPERIMENTAL TEST BENCH FOR THE THERMAL CONDITIONING ANALYSIS OF ABSORPTION AND DESORPTION CYCLES OF HYDROGEN WITHIN METAL HYDRIDES STORAGE TANKS

Hydrogen storage is one of the key issues to its spread on a large scale; among the different methods, storing hydrogen in the form of metal hydrides is certainly a promising technology due to several aspects, including the lack of hydrogen compression. However, this process is not mature yet and further studies are needed to make this storage system competitive; in particular, due to thermal behavior of metal hydrides during the absorption/desorption phases, the heat management of the storage system needs to be improved, to enhance the reaction kinetics in the metal site. This work aims at presenting an experimental test bench, built to characterize and optimize the thermal conditioning and management of low-pressure metal hydrides canisters for hydrogen storage, fed by a green hydrogen production line. More in detail, the final objective of this scientific path is to propose an experimental approach for the energy assessment of the hydrogen storage system in metal hydrides, no longer in an isolated way but in the perspective of integration with the commercial electrolysis technology for stationary applications. This approach will therefore allow a necessary overview to experimentally investigate the effects of the metal hydrides thermodynamic behaviour on the entire Power-to-Hydrogen system, allowing to define a methodology for the optimized integration between systems by means of some empirical correlations, to increase energy efficiency and reduce operating costs/risks.