A Review on Thermal Coupling of Metal Hydride Storage Tanks with Fuel Cells and Electrolyzers

Abstract

Hydrogen is one of the energy carriers that has started to play a significant role in the clean energy transition. In the hydrogen ecosystem, storing hydrogen safely and with high volumetric density plays a key role. In this regard, metal hydride storage seems to be superior to compressed gas storage, which is the most common method used today. However, thermal management is a challenge that needs to be considered. Temperature changes occur during charging and discharging processes due to the reactions between metal, metal hydride, and hydrogen, which affect the inflow or outflow of hydrogen at the desired flow rate. There are different thermal management techniques to handle this challenge in the literature. When the metal hydride storage tanks are used in integrated systems together with a fuel cell and/or an electrolyzer, the thermal interactions between these components can be used for this purpose. This study gives a comprehensive review of the heat transfer during the charging and discharging of metal hydride tanks, the thermal management system techniques used for metal hydride tanks, and the studies on the thermal management of metal hydride tanks with material streams from the fuel cell and/or electrolyzers.