Modeling and numerical simulation of an industrial scale metal hydride reactor based on CFD-Taguchi combined method

This study proposes a cylindrical reactor design embedded with bifurcating longitudinal finned cooling tubes as the heat exchanger for an industrial-scale metal hydride reactor system. We use Taguchi method as an optimization technique for the design parameters. The model performance was simulated with an objective of attaining the least time of absorption. The optimization involved seven control factors in an array of L 18 (2(1)3(6)). We observed that the number of cooling tubes, the fin length, and the number of fins are the most critical parameters for optimizing absorption time. A three-dimensional numerical model has been developed using COMSOL Multiphysics 5.2a to predict the optimized design's hydriding performance. The absorption characteristics were studied based on the variation of pressure and heat transfer fluid temperature. At a supply pressure of 20 bars and a cooling fluid temperature of 20 degrees C in a 50 kg system with 8 bifurcating finned cooling tubes, a hydrogen storage capacity of 1.21 wt% was achieved in 700 seconds. This paper highlights an optimized design's efficiency and operating parameter's influence to garner the best performance for rapid hydrogen charging.