The main target of the thesis was to study the thermal integration of a magnesium hydride (MgH2) tank with an external heat source. At first, the evolution of material properties upon cycling were investigated. A large microstructural evolution was observed during the first cycles which impacts on kinetics of reaction and thermal conductivity. An expansion of the composites is also observed. Quantity and/or nature of the additives used during material preparation was identified as an important parameter controlling this phenomenon. Our measures show that mechanical strains on the tank wall due to this expension are stable after 40 hydrogenation cycles. A large number of cycles was applied to these composites which exhibits a very high stability upon cycling. A large scale magnesium hydride tank (10 kg MgH2) storing 6500 Nl of hydrogen in 35 minutes was developed and tested. The energy of reaction is exchanged with an external heat source by a heat transfer fluid. This installation allows to simulate the integration of a magnesium hydride tank into a co-generation system. A numerical model was developed in order to better understand and predict the behavior of this tank. A thermal integration test of the MgH2 with a high temperature fuel cell (SOFC) was performed at Politecnico di Torino.
Coupling and thermal integration of a magnesium hydride tank and an external heat source