Investigation on the changes of pressure and temperature in high pressure filling of hydrogen storage tank

Abstract

Hydrogen as fuel has been considered as a feasible energy carry and which offers a clean and efficient alternative for transportation. During the high pressure filling, the temperature in the hydrogen storage tank (HST) may rise rapidly due to the hydrogen compression. The high temperature may lead to safety problem. Thus, for fast and safely refueling the hydrogen, several key factors need to be considered. In the present study, by the thermodynamics theories, a mathematical model is established to simulate and analyze the high pressure filling process of the storage tank for the hydrogen station. In the analysis, the physical parameters of normal hydrogen are introduced to make the simulation close to the actual process. By the numerical simulation for 50 MPa compressed hydrogen tank, the temperature and pressure trends during filling are obtained. The simulation results for non-adiabatic filling were compared with the theoretically calculated ones for adiabatic conditions and the simulation results for non-adiabatic filling were compared with the simulation ones for adiabatic conditions. Then, the influence of working pressure, initial temperature, mass flow rate, initial pressure and inlet temperature on the temperature rise were analyzed. This study provides a theoretical research basis for high pressure hydrogen energy storage and hydrogenation technology.

Keywords

• High pressure hydrogen storage
• Hydrogen gas filling
• Thermo-mechanical
• Numerical simulation
• Temperature rise