1. Dynamic Modeling and Control of a Two-Reactor Metal Hydride Energy Storage System
- Author
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Krane, Patrick, Nash, Austin L., Ziviani, Davide, Braun, James E., Marconnet, Amy M., and Jain, Neera
- Subjects
Electrical Engineering and Systems Science - Systems and Control - Abstract
Metal hydrides have been studied for use in energy storage, hydrogen storage, and air-conditioning (A/C) systems. A common architecture for A/C and energy storage systems is two metal hydride reactors connected to each other so that hydrogen can flow between them, allowing for cyclic use of the hydrogen. This paper presents a nonlinear dynamic model and multivariate control strategy of such a system. Each reactor is modelled as a shell-and-tube heat exchanger connected to a circulating fluid, and a compressor drives hydrogen flow between the reactors. We further develop a linear state-space version of this model integrated with a model predictive controller to determine the fluid mass flow rates and compressor pressure difference required to achieve desired heat transfer rates between the metal hydride and the fluid. A series of case studies demonstrates that this controller can track desired heat transfer rates in each reactor, even in the presence of time-varying circulating fluid inlet temperatures, thereby enabling the use of a two-reactor system for energy storage or integration with a heat pump., Comment: 42 pages; 14 Figures
- Published
- 2021