Dynamic Modeling and Simulation Based Analysis of an Ammonia Borane (AB) Reactor System for Hydrogen Storage

Research on ammonia borane (AB, NH3BH3) has shown it to be a promising material for chemical hydrogen storage in PEM fuel cell applications. AB was selected by DOE's Hydrogen Storage Engineering Center of Excellence (HSECoE) as the initial chemical hydride of study because of its high hydrogen storage capacity (up to 19.6% by weight for the release of three molar equivalents of hydrogen gas) and its stability under typical ambient conditions. A model of a bead reactor system which includes feed and product tanks, hot and cold augers, a ballast tank/reactor, a H-2 burner and a radiator was developed to study AB system performance in an automotive application and estimate the energy, mass, and volume requirements for this off-board regenerable hydrogen storage material. Preliminary system simulation results for a start-up case and for a transient drive cycle indicate appropriate trends in the reactor system dynamics. A new controller was developed and validated in simulation for a couple of H-2 demand cases.