Hydrogen fuel cell applications are set to ameliorate the world's energy woes, yet there still exists problems that need to be overcome in terms oftheir fuelling. While compressed storage, cryogenic storage, chemical storage, and adsorptive storage solutions exist, none meet the requirements that are needed to facilitate a replacement for the gasoline powered automobile.
Metal hydrides have been long studied as an alternative method for storing hydrogen safely and efficiently, with significant developments being made in advanced alloys. While this research is beneficial, it was theorized that an externally applied magnetic field might augment the storage properties of existing magnetically susceptible metal hydrides, without trial and error alloy development. Constant volume hydrogen absorption experiments were conducted using LaNi5 in order to test this theory. A known amount of LaNi5 was exposed to hydrogen, with the absorption equilibrium data collected over a period of 6 hours. An equal sample was then exposed to hydrogen with a 0.7 Tesla applied field applied to the sample. There was a distinct difference between the absorption curves of the two equal samples, with the sample under the influence of the magnetic field achieving an absorption of only 0.60% wt. in comparison with the unmodified sample which absorbed 0.88% wt. It was concluded that the presence of an externally applied magnetic field has a negative effect on the overall capacity of LaNis through the prevention of a shift in the inner lattice structure of LaNis that would otherwise permit an increased hydrogen capacity. This effect while negative in terms of overall storage capacity could have a possible benefit in terms of the desorption of the stored hydrogen, as the magnetic field could be used in lieu of an increase in temperature in order to drive the hydrogen from the fully filled structure. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/22295 |
| Date | 10 1900 |
| Creators | Bruce, David |
| Contributors | Xu, Gu, Materials Science and Engineering |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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