Investigation of Compressor Driven Metal Hydride Heat Pumps (CDMHHP) Using Numerical Simulation

Metal hydrides can be used for ambient cooling and heating because of their exothermic and endothermic reaction with hydrogen. This is the first attempt to investigate the cooling capacity of compressor driven metal hydride heat pumps (CDMHHP) using a two-dimensional model. In the last studies, only one-dimensional models have been used for studying the application of CDMHHPs. The simulation results have been compared with experimental results and a good agreement have been observed between them. Then the effect of compressor type and hydrogen adsorbent on the performance of heat pump have been investigated. The results show that the device efficiency significantly depends on compressor performance and using the two-stage compressor can improve the device performance compared with one-stage compressor. Also the use of LaNi5 and C5 alloys showed more cooling power in C5 alloy in the same operating condition whereas it takes more cost. Since the power consumption was equal to both alloys, the heat pump containing LaNi5 alloy with tree times larger compressor could generate the same cooling power provided by C5 alloy.