PNNL

Abstract

Out of the materials available for chemical hydrogen storage in PEM fuel cell applications, ammonia borane (AB, NH3BH3) has a high hydrogen storage capacity (upto 19.6% by weight for the release of three hydrogen molecules). Therefore, AB was chosen in our chemical hydride simulation studies. A model for the AB bead reactor system was developed to study the system performance and determine the energy, mass and volume requirements for off-board regenerable hydrogen storage. The system includes hot and cold augers, ballast tank and reactor, product tank, H2 burner and a radiator. One dimensional models based on conservation of mass, species and energy were used to predict important state variables such as reactant and product concentrations, temperatures of various components, flow rates, along with pressure in the reactor system. Control signals to various components are governed by a control system which is modeled as an independent subsystem. Various subsystem components in the models were coded as C language S-functions and implemented in Matlab/Simulink environment. Preliminary system simulation results for a start-up case and for a transient drive cycle indicate accurate trends in the reactor system dynamics.