Issue 8, 2017

Thermal optimisation of metal hydride reactors for thermal energy storage applications

Abstract

Metal hydrides (MHs) are promising candidates as thermal energy storage (TES) materials for concentrated solar thermal applications. A key requirement for this technology is a high temperature heat transfer fluid (HTF) that can deliver heat to the MHs for storage during the day, and remove heat at night time to produce electricity. In this study, supercritical water was used as a HTF to heat a prototype thermochemical heat storage reactor filled with MgH2 powder during H2 sorption, rather than electrical heating of the MH reactor. This is beneficial as the HTF flows through a coil of tubing embedded within the MH bed and is hence in better contact with the MgH2 powder. This internal heating mode produces a more uniform temperature distribution within the reactor by increasing the heat exchange surface area and reducing the characteristic heat exchange distances. Moreover, supercritical water can be implemented as a heat carrier for the entire thermal energy system within a concentrating solar thermal plant, from the receiver, through the heat storage system, and also within a conventional turbine-driven electric power generation system. Thus, the total system energy efficiency can be improved by minimising HTF heat exchangers.

Graphical abstract: Thermal optimisation of metal hydride reactors for thermal energy storage applications

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
30 Jun 2017
Accepted
31 Aug 2017
First published
31 Aug 2017
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Sustainable Energy Fuels, 2017,1, 1820-1829

Thermal optimisation of metal hydride reactors for thermal energy storage applications

D. Dong, T. D. Humphries, D. A. Sheppard, B. Stansby, M. Paskevicius, M. V. Sofianos, A.-L. Chaudhary, M. Dornheim and C. E. Buckley, Sustainable Energy Fuels, 2017, 1, 1820 DOI: 10.1039/C7SE00316A

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements