Design of Heat Exchanger for Low-Pressure Vessel for Hydrogen Storage
Abstract
This article describes the issue of hydrogen storage in metal hydrides and addresses the design of a heat exchanger and the calculation of heat transfer in low-pressure steel vessel with heat exchanger, which is used for hydrogen storage using La Ce Ni based metal alloys
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Introduction
Following the problem of global warming, efforts have intensified to explore and implement alternative energy sources. At present, various political parties around the world are trying to raise awareness of renewable energy sources. In this context, hydrogen is considered a suitable candidate precisely because of its high heat value and good effects on environment. However, hydrogen is an energy carrier rather than source of energy, so it requires an efficient energy storage mechanism. There are several ways of storing the hydrogen, such as: high-pressure gas storage, liquid cryogenic storage, and lowpressure storage in metallic alloys. Low-pressure vessels are currently being developed for hydrogen storage. The main obstacle of the low-pressure vessels is the need to cool the alloys during hydrogen absorption and to heat the alloys during desorption.
Conclusion
Hydrogen technologies represent a promising future in the automotive industry but also in everyday use. Hydrogen has a low bulk density and therefore must be stored in high-pressure tanks or in liquid form using cryogenic vessels, which makes these methods in terms of energy efficiency very demanding. From this point of view, the storage in metal hydrides may represent a promising future. When hydrogen is stored in metal hydrides, high pressures are not required, and they reach high values of bulk density. The disadvantages of storage in metal hydrides are the low bulk density in metal structure and the very low value of thermal conductivity of the used alloys. The aim of this work was to design a heat exchanger that will efficiently dissipate heat from the core of the pressure vessel to the outer jacket, where the vessel is cooled by coolant. The results of the simulation showed that the design of the heat exchanger achieved very satisfactory results and values in all aspects of the investigation.