Research On Metal Hydride Compressor Which Output Hydrogen With Pressure Up To 35MPa

Along with the coming of hydrogen energy era and the popularity of Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Vehicle, the metal hydride(MH) compressor which can afford hydrogen with high pressure and high purity become a hot research spot in the world. Supported by the National 863 Project, This paper designed a single stage compressor and a two-stage compressor. The main contents and conclusions are included as the following:The operating characteristic of compressors have been studied, Influence of operating parameters such as heat source and sink temperature, operating pressures, the time of hydrogen absorption and desorption on the performance of the hydrogen compressor is presented. the common relationship between the operating parameters and the performance parameters such as average hydrogen flow ,pressure ratio and thermodynamic efficiency of the hydrogen compressor is also concluded.Based on the research of the operating characteristic of the MH compressor, the single stage compressor is operated, the experiment shows: the single stage compressor can improve the hydrogen pressure from 2Mpa up to 35Mpa, the pressure ratio reaches 17.5. However, its average hydrogen output flow just reaches 0.14mol/min.The result of two stage compression experiment shows: at the temperature of 175℃, the pressure in the compressor reactor can reach 38Mpa.The compressor can output hydrogen with pressure of 35Mpa steadily, its hydrogen flow is 5.4L/(min*kg), this speed is the fastest in china .This paper also studies the first stage compression of the two stage compressor separately, the result shows that the average hydrogen flow of the first stage compression reach 0.384mol/min. Both the PCT Curves of the MH at 95℃and 175℃are drawn .Both the experiments of the single stage compressor and two stage compressor show that: the strength of the compressor reactors are strong enough and the reactors have excellent heat-transfer capability and good hydrogen transmission capacity.This paper establishes an important basis for the practical research of Continuous MH hydrogen compressor.