Using of Hydrogen Sorbtion Storing Technology based on Metal Hydrides for Cooling of High-Power Electric Generators with Steam Turbines

Abstract

The article analyzes the cooling systems that have become stuck during the operation of high-power electric machines, the importance of using water-cooling systems for them has been dubbed. The main part of the research is devoted to the consideration of nutritional and detailed methods of rational cooling of turbogenerators based on the use of innovative environment protection technologies, namely metal hydride hydrogen storage technologies as an environmentally friendly alternative to motor fuel. It is shown that an alternative to the traditionally used devices for cooling of electric machines with hydrogen is the use of hydrides of intermetallic compounds to implement the working processes of thermosorption compressors, which is due to the ability of reversible hydrides of intermetallic compounds to repeatedly sorb and desorb hydrogen at significantly different pressures, the value of which is determined by the temperature potential of the thermal effect, i.e. thermochemical compression of hydrogen. The methods of calculating the parameters used in the designing such devices have been analyzed, and the method of determining the parameters of phase equilibria of hydrides of intermetallic compounds has been suggested. Mathematical modeling of hydrogen sorption by intermetallic compounds, performed on the basis of the mathematical apparatus of the thermodynamic perturbation theory improved in the study and on the example of the intermetallic hydride LaNi5, based on the application of the lattice gas model for metal hydrides. At the same time, due to the presence of an unchanged crystal structure of the metal, an increase in the volume of the crystal lattice in the process of hydrogen sorption was taken into account, which leads to the appearance of additional components in the potential energy, and the interaction between absorbed hydrogen atoms has also been taken into account. The calculated temperature dependences of the pressure on the plateau of the hydrogen solubility isotherm are in good agreement with the experimental data available in the literature. The operation of the metal hydride cooling system of TG excludes the occurrence of fire and explosive situations, and it also significantly increases the level of ecological safety indicators.