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CC BY V4.0, Open Access
Thesis
Numerical Modeling of Liquid Hydrogen Storage Tanks for the Reduction of Boil-Off Losses
Washington State University
Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
12/2024
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000007219
Abstract
Liquid hydrogen is stored at 20 K (-420°F) resulting in significant daily boil-off losses. As the demand for hydrogen multiplies in the coming decades, these losses become a primary opportunity for storage system improvement. Thermal heat leak into the tank is both convenient to analyze and a substantially researched source of losses. However, real-world tank operations like cyclic venting, liquid refills, and liquid extractions have not been carefully investigated for their effect on liquid system performance.
Real-world liquid hydrogen tank operation examples were sourced from the literature including NASA, as well as tank operation data provided by Plug Power. A numerical model
was developed that integrates the mass and energy equations through time. Empirical functions were developed for various tank operations. The resulting model was able to reproduce an in-service tank pressure trace with operations of filling, liquid extraction, and venting with ±3% accuracy. The resulting model framework is useful for parametrically investigating the effect of operation changes on hydrogen boil-off losses. The model predicted that decreasing the pressure drop in the tank during venting by 78% results in a boil-off loss reduction of 29%. The model also predicted that the implementation of new operations like reliquefiers in storage systems can reduce boil-off losses by 92%. Using the model, informed decisions can be made for the operations of LH2 storage systems to minimize the associated hydrogen loss.
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Details
- Title
- Numerical Modeling of Liquid Hydrogen Storage Tanks for the Reduction of Boil-Off Losses
- Creators
- Kyle Appel
- Contributors
- Jacob Leachman (Co-Chair)Konstantin Matveev (Co-Chair)Soumik Banerjee (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 118
- Identifiers
- 99901195439501842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis