Hydrogen Storage and Compression based on Metal Hydrides

This PhD project is linked to the energy topic and in particular to the storage of hydrogen as energy vector, by exploiting metal hydrides based on intermetallic compounds. The goal of the thesis is to bridge the gaps between laboratory research and implementation of devices, by investigating metal hydrides properties to develop hydrogen compression and storage systems, using also modelling for their design. The red thread of the work is the study of metal hydrides from an industrial point of view, looking for suitable compositions (commercial or not), that can fit final plant requests. Indeed, for an effective industrial exploitation of the H2 economy, it is now the time to move from laboratory to real scale industrial H2 systems. A series of consideration on the size of hydrogen storage systems were performed thanks to lumped elemental model, focusing the attention on system weight and volume, and on the main parameters that can affect these features. Concerning the storage of H2, a commercial alloy was characterized and then integrated in a prototype to be tested. A commercial market survey and study of a series of market available alloys allowed to find the proper compositions for the realization of a prototype of metal hydride compressor. Then, a series of new compounds were synthetized and characterized to individuate a proper composition that can be added at the realized compressor. The goal is to improve plant performances but considering processing the compounds in view of an industrial possible production.