IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v401y2025ipcs0306261925014904.html

A hydrogen supply system utilizing PEMFC exhaust heat and modular metal hydride tanks for hydrogen-powered bicycles

Author

Listed:
  • Miao, Shan
  • Ezawa, Tomoya
  • Sumita, Masami
  • Harano, Koki
  • Imai, Ayane
  • Katayama, Noboru
  • Dowaki, Kiyoshi

Abstract

A compact hydrogen supply system for thermally integrating metal hydride (MH) tanks with a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) for a hydrogen-powered electric-assist bicycle (H-bike) is proposed. The system recovers the exhaust heat generated by the PEMFC to sustain hydrogen desorption and improve the system's energy efficiency. The results demonstrate that the split-tank strategy decreases thermal and pressure gradients and enhances heat transfer and hydrogen release. The honeycomb tank configuration further improves hydrogen desorption by promoting uniform airflow distribution around each tank, thereby improving exhaust heat utilization from the PEMFC. It employs a layer-adjustable configuration, facilitating the flexible adaptation of MH cartridge quantities to meet hydrogen demand and prevailing road conditions in urban areas. Under a PEMFC power output of 215 W, the system maintains a stable hydrogen flow rate for over 30 min, with a heat recovery efficiency of 22.62 %. Furthermore, increasing the number of MH cartridge layers significantly improves the thermal utilization of the system, achieving a utilization efficiency of 39.90 % with two layers. These findings confirm the feasibility and scalability of the proposed system for H-bike, highlighting its potential as a decentralized hydrogen supply solution for lightweight mobility and urban transportation applications.

Suggested Citation

  • Miao, Shan & Ezawa, Tomoya & Sumita, Masami & Harano, Koki & Imai, Ayane & Katayama, Noboru & Dowaki, Kiyoshi, 2025. "A hydrogen supply system utilizing PEMFC exhaust heat and modular metal hydride tanks for hydrogen-powered bicycles," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 401(PC).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:401:y:2025:i:pc:s0306261925014904
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2025.126760
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261925014904
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2025.126760?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:401:y:2025:i:pc:s0306261925014904. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.