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Durability study of a vehicle-scale hydrogen storage system

Johnson, Terry A.; Dedrick, Daniel E.; Behrens, Richard B.

Sandia National Laboratories has developed a vehicle-scale demonstration hydrogen storage system as part of a Work for Others project funded by General Motors. This Demonstration System was developed based on the properties and characteristics of sodium alanates which are complex metal hydrides. The technology resulting from this program was developed to enable heat and mass management during refueling and hydrogen delivery to an automotive system. During this program the Demonstration System was subjected to repeated hydriding and dehydriding cycles to enable comparison of the vehicle-scale system performance to small-scale sample data. This paper describes the experimental results of life-cycle studies of the Demonstration System. Two of the four hydrogen storage modules of the Demonstration System were used for this study. A well-controlled and repeatable sorption cycle was defined for the repeated cycling, which began after the system had already been cycled forty-one times. After the first nine repeated cycles, a significant hydrogen storage capacity loss was observed. It was suspected that the sodium alanates had been affected either morphologically or by contamination. The mechanisms leading to this initial degradation were investigated and results indicated that water and/or air contamination of the hydrogen supply may have lead to oxidation of the hydride and possibly kinetic deactivation. Subsequent cycles showed continued capacity loss indicating that the mechanism of degradation was gradual and transport or kinetically limited. A materials analysis was then conducted using established methods including treatment with carbon dioxide to react with sodium oxides that may have formed. The module tubes were sectioned to examine chemical composition and morphology as a function of axial position. The results will be discussed.