METAL HYDRIDE BASED COOLING SYSTEMS

In recent years, a lot of attention has been directed towards metal hydrides. The reason being their ability to store hydrogen. Many attempts have been made to develop metal hydride based heating and cooling systems. The possibility to utilize low temperature heat (waste heat) to drive these systems has great potential, helping to reduce to pollution if implemented. Major applications are seen in air conditioning and heat supply for buildings and in air conditioning of automobiles. Although this technology offers the possibility to increase the energy efficiency of a car (by utilizing waste heat) and consequently reduces the CO2 emissions, its weight specific cooling power has so far been the main obstacle for an automotive application .In this paper, an overview of the operating principles and working of metal hydride based cooling systems; together with the material characteristics relevant to efficient operation of such devices are discussed.