A Discussion of the Thermal Management System for Metal Hydride Cartridges for H-Bike
摘要
As one of the means to realize a sustainable society, fuel cell applications using hydrogen as an alternative fuel are being studied. Hydrogen can be synthesized from biomass feedstock, a renewable resource. For instance, fuel cells efficiently convert sewage sludge and wood chips into electrical energy. Two main types of fuel hydrogen storage technologies exist high pressure and liquefaction. However, these methods require additional measures regarding the energy necessary for compression or liquefaction and the system’s safety. On the other hand, hydrogen storage using metal hydride is being introduced because it can operate safely under a relatively average temperature and pressure atmosphere, depending on the type of alloy. Other features include high volumetric energy density and weight density, suitable for systems requiring no weight constraints and space-saving. In metal hydride, hydrogen storage, and release are caused by reversible equilibrium reactions. The hydrogen release reaction is endothermic and requires additional heat to maintain a sufficient hydrogen release rate. However, due to the low thermal conductivity of the hydrogen storage alloy, the amount of heat transferred from the surrounding environment to the hydrogen storage alloy tank is usually insufficient to match the amount of heat required by the reaction rate corresponding to the hydrogen release rate needed for the fuel cell stack. Therefore, the temperature inside the tank decreases due to the endothermic heat of the reaction heat. As a result, the equilibrium reaction stops because the hydrogen supply rate to the fuel cell drops, which may cause the fuel cell to stop. One way to solve this problem is to use an external heat source to make the hydrogen storage container hot. Therefore, as a solution to improve the system’s performance, using the exhaust heat dissipated through the fuel cell cooling system is considered one of the attractive means that does not require additional systems. This research group focuses on the fact that no weight limit and space is saved that can take advantage of the advantages of the metal hydride and is researching the thermal management of a small-scale system that combines a storage alloy tank mounted on the assisted fuel cell bike (H-bike) that runs on a fuel cell including the configuration and the geometric design. In this study, we experimented with a small, air-cooled fuel cell (300 W) combined with multiple small self-made tanks (diameter 30 mm, length 30 mm). In addition, we examined the thermal characteristics of the cover around the tank as thermal management to improve emission performance. At this time, the conditions necessary for maintaining the tank’s internal temperature were estimated, and the conditions required for mounting on H-bike were examined.