Modeling of cooling system for hydrogen storage process with sodium alanate and catalyzed by titanium chloride

One of the greatest problems to implement the use of hydrogen in automotive or stationary systems is the control in the temperature to regulate the storage capacity and the absorption and desorption process of material used to store the hydrogen. Metal organic compounds have generated a significant interest due to a high proportion of hydrogen in their structure, by this reason most of the researches are focused on the development of storage systems based on these compounds, but the regulation of temperature and mass transfer are yet a drawback to increase the efficiency of these systems. In this paper, we study the feasibility of a cooling system for a hydrogen storage system using Sodium alanate catalyzed by Titanium chloride as the hydrogen storage material in a cylindrical vessel with a suitable distribution of feed and cooling systems. A temperature of 170 degrees C was chosen for hydrogen input according to the storage properties of the selected storage medium looking for the increase of store capacity in terms of high density of hydrogen accumulation to obtain an adequate storage system to be implemented in automotive applications. One of the main characteristics to determine the efficiency of cooling systems is the quantity of time necessary to decrease the temperature to a normal range. In this case was obtained an effective time of 1100 s for a structure composed by a central and external system of coolant pipes, using the ethylene glycol properties as coolant to unify the use of the same coolant for hydrogen storage and engine cooling. Copyright (C) 2015, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.