Modeling and Experimental Validation in the Development of Chemical Hydrogen Storage Materials for Automotive Applications

Since 2009 the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has been working with its partners in the Hydrogen Storage Engineering Center of Excellence (HSECoE) to address the engineering challenges associated with developing hydrogen storage systems for light-duty vehicles.  Because of their high hydrogen capacity, chemical hydrogen storage materials have been one thrust of this effort.  This presentation will focus on the work that has been done in the development of systems using a variety of chemical hydrogen storage materials.  In addition to developing system schematics, Simulink® models were developed for these systems to predict their performance relative to the 2017 DOE Technical Targets and four drive cycles: US06, UDDS, cold FTP, and hot SC03. 

Testing of key system components such as the reactor, heat exchanger, and volume displacement tank were also performed to provide validation data for the models.  These experiments were done with actual storage materials such as ammonia borane and alane as well as inert physical simulants.  Once validated, these models will assist researchers in their future material development work in identifying candidate materials that can meet the DOE technical targets.  The system designs, models, and the ranges that they predict for material properties will be described.