Development of a modular room-temperature hydride storage system for vehicular applications

The subject of this paper concerns the development of a vehicular hydrogen tank system, using a commercial interstitial metal hydride as storage material. The design of the tank was intended to feed a fuel cell in a light prototype vehicle, and the chosen hydride material, Hydralloy C5 by GfE, was expected to be able to absorb and desorb hydrogen in a range of pressure suitable for this purpose. A systematic analysis of the material in laboratory scale allows an extrapolation of the thermodynamic and reaction kinetics data. The following development of the modular tank was done according to the requirements of the prototype vehicle propulsion system and led to promising intermediate results. The modular approach granted flexibility in the design, allowing both to reach carefully the design goals and to learn the limiting factors in the sorption process. Proper heat management and suitable equipment remain key factors in order to achieve the best performances.