Scope and Objectives

Synthesis and characterization of metal hydrides(MH) with the required characteristics for use with fuel cell. Design and fabrication of MH based hydrogen storage devices(two 1 kg and one 5 kg H2) based on heat and mass transfer studies and their long term performance testing. Optimised material based design and development of high pressure (70 MPa) polymer lined fibre reinforced composite cylinder for gaseous hydrogen storage. Modelling and development of indigenous polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell of 5 kW Integration of the developed storage systems and fuel cell for both mobile (vehicular) and stationary(telecom tower and healthcare unit) applications.

Deliverables

Metal hydride (800 kg) with optimised thermodynamics, kinetics, high gravimetric capacity and cycle life Development of fast charging / discharging large-scale metal hydride tank of storing 5 kg H2 Indigenous high pressure (700 bar) compressed hydrogen tank. Development of 5 kW fuel cell stack Integration of storage devices with fuel cell Demonstration of developed combined system to operate for a telecom tower, healthcare unit and in vehicle.

Videos

Scientific Output

Same as mentioned under deliverable

Results and outcome till date

Screened more than 2k metal hydrides for their hydrogen storage properties Synthesized several metal hydrides for e.g. MmNi4.5Al0.5, LaNi5 and La0.9Ce0.1Ni5, FeTiV, FeTiZr, FeTiMn, FeTiVZrMn and many more. Detailed characterization of the alloys synthesized has been carried out Thermophysical properties of selected metal hydrides were measured The effect of gaseous impurities namely O2, CO2 were studied. Thermal modelling of metal hydride based hydrogen storage reactor for 50 g (prototype) and 600 g hydrogen storage capacity has been successfully developed and simulated for obtaining the optimum absorption/desorption conditions. Metal hydride based hydrogen storage reactor of capacity 50 g has been designed and fabricated based on the thermal model Two metal hydride based hydrogen storage reactor of capacity 600 g has been designed and fabricated based on the thermal model. These prototypes can also store up to 1000 g of hydrogen. Performances tests and parametric studies on 600 g and 50 g hydrogen storage reactors have been completed at different operating conditions likef bed temperature, supply pressure and HTF flow rate. Metal hydride tank with four cooling tubes and conical fins designed Simulation framework for Type IV cylinder has been established providing optimized layup of composite wrapping in addition to identification of liner material to control the hydrogen permeation. The simulation framework considers parameters such as fiber lay-up thickness, fibre orientation and manufacturing parameters such as bandwidth, transition angle, end fraction etc using wound composite modeler plug-in of ABAQUS software. Manufacturing of Type IV hydrogen tank is ongoing Efforts on indigenous development of liner with leak proof coupling with the boss has been initiated. This development is ongoing in collaboration with at CIPET, Amritsar. Bipolar plate designing is completed and the total active area of the cell is finalized. Single cell with active area of 217 cm2 is fabricated and tested. A power density of 0.33 W/cm2 is achieved with single cell at 0.6 V.

Societal benefit and impact anticipated

Towards the end of the project the ingenuously developed systems (Compressed hydrogen tank, Metal hydride bed and fuel cell) developed will be integrated for various applications for e.g. rural health care unit, telecom tower etc.

Next steps

Two more reactors will be fabricated their designs have been optimised Fuel cell stack will be fabricated Liner-Boss assembly to be tested for leak proof operation and then Type IV tank will be fabricated Finally integration

Publications and reports

1. P. Muthukumar, Alok Kumar, Nithin N. Raju, K. Malleswararao, Muhammad M. Rahman, A Critical Review on Design Aspects and Developmental Status of Metal Hydride Based Thermal Machines, Int J Hydrogen Energy 43(2018)17753-79. 2. Nithin N. Raju, Alok Kumar, K. Malleswararao, P. Muthukumar, Parametric Studies on LaNi4.7Al0.3 based Hydrogen Storage Reactor with Embedded Cooling Tubes, 10th International Conference on Applied Energy, Hong Kong, 2018. (Accepted) 3. Nithin N. Raju, P. Muthukumar, K. Malleswararao, Determination of Absorption Conditions for LaNi4.7Al0.3 Based Hydrogen Storage Device: A Numerical Investigation, Presented at 5th International Conference on Computation Methods for Thermal Problems, Bangalore, 2018. 4. Nithin N. Raju, Sayantan Jana, P. Muthukumar, Influence of Geometric Configuration on Charging Characteristics of MmNi4.6Fe0.4 Based Hydrogen Storage Device, Presented at 6th International Conference on Advances in Energy Research, Bombay, 2017. (Accepted for publication in Springer Proceedings in Energy) 5. M. Kumar, R. M. Prasad, S. S. Padhee, D. K. Mahajan, Coupled thermo-mechanical analysis based design and material optimization of Type IV Hydrogen Cylinders, under preparation.

Patents

Design of Leak Proof Type IV Tank Liner and Metallic Boss Assembly Dhiraj K. Mahajan, Mukesh Kumar, Ravi Mohan Prasad, Srikant S. Padhee under preparation, patent to be submitted

Scholars and Project Staff

IIT Bombay Rahul Surve, Project Assistant, tenure 03/04/2018 till date Asish Nadar, SRF, tenure 27/11/2017 to October 2018 Satayaki Chandra, JRF, 13/07/2017 till date Jayshree Vyas, JRF, tenure 19/04/2017 to 16/06/2017 Arun Chander Ashok, SRF, tenure 05/04/2017 to 28/06/2017 IIT Ropar Mukesh Kumar, JRF, IIT Ropar, since August 2017 IIT Guwahati Four PhD students and Two M.Tech students which are funded by IITG, one project staff for 2017-18 now no funding available in manpower IIT Tirupati One JRF

Challenges faced

The investigators are struggling with fund shortage under some heads, as have not received the 50% share of MNRE. The investigators are worried about how to procure the equipment and other consumables, besides manpower head is negative. Requesting to release the 50% MNRE share at earliest to avoid delays in achieving the deliverable of the project.

Other information