Design and development of hydrogen absorption/desorption high pressure apparatus based on the pressure reduction method

A high-pressure apparatus for the measurement of hydrogen absorption/desorption characteristics, such as reversible hydrogen intake capacity, kinetics, plateau pressure, hysteresis and plateau slope of alloys and inter-metallic compounds in the ranges 0.002 ≤ P/bar ≤ 100 and 300 ≤ T/K ≤ 673, based on the pressure reduction method, is described. Special stainless steel tubes, adapters, tees, valves and pressure heads are used to develop the measuring system, while the hydrogen reaction chamber is constructed using special stainless tube and copper block. This apparatus is also capable of being used as it stands for the study of the kinetics of absorption, as well as of the hydrogen decrepitation route in the powder metallurgical production of magnetic alloys. The satisfactory performance of the apparatus is checked with the hydrogen absorption isotherms in palladium. © 1998 International Association for Hydrogen Energy.