ALTERNATIVE APPLICATIONS OF PELTIER THERMOPILES IN COOLING METAL HYDRIDE CONTAINERS

Abstract

Hydrogen absorption into a metal hydride container is accompanied with generation of heat that must be removed during the process. In the case that the container is not cooled, the gas pressure rapidly increases and even with a small amount of stored hydrogen it exceeds the permissible value. Peltier thermopiles offer an interesting alternative to conventional cooling methods and they have been increasingly used. The present article describes the measurements aimed at identification of an optimal cooling method and the results of the comparison of surface cooling, circulation cooling, and the combined cooling methods in terms of thermodynamic and energy parameters during hydrogen absorption.

Keywords

• peltier thermopile
• cooling
• metal hydride container
• absorption
• hydrogen