Improvement of hydride beds characteristics

Some ideas put into designing of the basic hydride heat pump (HHP) device - a hydride reactor-sorber - are traversed in the report. Features of hydride beds are considered from the point of view of hydrogen filtration and heat exchange improvement. Designs of two sorbers - modular and mono-block are described and their effective thermal conductivity and heat transfer are evaluated. Results of experimental determination of effective thermal conductivity of hydride bed with the heat-conducting corrugated insertion are given. Parameters of installations tested with developed sorbers are briefly presented. Approaches and some results of mathematical modelling HHP processes are presented. Achieved experimental characteristics are compared for different sorbers. It is shown that a modular sorber takes precedence over mono-block one because of essentially greater heat exchange surface. (authors)