Metal hydrides are compounds formed by the reversible
chemical reaction of hydrogen and metallic atom. Whenmetallic atoms are
exposed to hydrogen near ambient conditions, the metal atoms absorb
enormous amount of hydrogen by releasing heat (Exothermic reaction)
spontaneously, called absorption process. When the heat is supplied to
the metal hydride molecules, the hydrogen gets separated from the metal
hydride and becomes a free hydrogen (Endothermic reaction) called
desorption process. Metal hydrides have been widely investigated for
hydrogen storage application. A large amount of heat is absorbed or
released during the formation/ decomposition of metal hydrides. These
heat interactions attract the attention of researchers towards the wide
range of application of metal hydrides to thermal machines.The Metal
Hydride lab at IIT Guwahati mainly focusses on theNumerical and
Experimental studies of the following applications.
Research | Major Contributions |
---|---|
Metal hydride hydrogen storage |
Designed, fabricated several pre-industrial scale prototypes of hydrogen storage reactors of about 1000 – 22000 L capacity for automobile and industrial applications, and their performances were tested at different operating conditions. |
Metal Hydride Cooling System |
Designed and developed MH based combined thermal energy storage system of capacity 25 kWh and cooling system of capacity 15 kWh. Tested a working prototype of compression driven MH based cooling system for automobile applications and achieved the COP in the range of 2.2 to 2.6. |
Metal hydride hydrogen purification system |
Designed and tested MH based hydrogen purification system of 7000 lit capacity and integrated with Electrical Generator of a Thermal power plant (one of the NTPC). Developed device is capable of purifying hydrogen from 70-80 % (impurities are CO2, CO, CH4, NO2, H2O) to 98 % purity. Cyclic stability of the system under real time operation is under progress. |
Heat and mass transfer studies in metal hydride reaction beds |
Investigated the hydriding and dehydriding characteristics of several metal hydride alloys at different operating conditions employing a coupled heat and heat transfer model in cylindrical coordinates. Evaluated the thermos-physical properties and reaction kinetics data of some metal hydride alloys in close coordination with IKE, University of Stuttgart, Germany. |
Metal hydride Thermal Energy storage system and heat transformer |
Designed and tested working prototypes of MH based heat transformers, Single-stage heat transformer: Heat input of 120°C has been upgraded up to 170°C. Double – stage heat transformer: Heat input of 120°C has been upgraded up to 210°C. |
Development metal hydride based lab-scale thermal energy storage system |
Investigated the performances of a metal hydride based thermal storage device using thermodynamic and heat and mass transfer models. Developed a prototype of metal hydride based thermal energy storage device and tested its performance at different operating conditions. |