A 38 MPa compressor based on metal hydrides

Known as one of the most promising application of metal hydride (MH), the MH compressor can afford hydrogen with high pressure and high purity. Two AB5 type multi-component hydrogen storage alloys and vanadium are studied for the purpose of high pressure compression. A compact compression system has been built. Each designed small-size reactor contains seven special stainless-steel pipes. The single stage compressor can improve the hydrogen pressure from 2 up to 35 MPa with the hydrogen desorbed per unit mass of 207.8 mL/g. The two-stage compression can output hydrogen with pressure of 38 MPa steadily in whole 5.7 mol hydrogen output flow. However, its hydrogen desorbed per unit mass was only computed to 106.9 mL/g as a result of two reactors used in the cycle and the output mass of hydrogen increased less.