Ergenics Corp. products

Ergenics has been supplying metal hydride hydrogen compressors for a broad range of applications for over twenty years.  Compression of hydrogen using reversible metal hydride alloys offers an economical alternative to traditional mechanical hydrogen compressors.  Hydride compressors are compact, silent, do not have dynamic seals, require very little maintenance and can operate unattended for long periods.  When powered by waste heat, energy consumption is only a fraction of that required for mechanical compression, which reduces the cost of hydrogen production.  The simplicity and passive operation of the hydride compression process offer many advantages over mechanical compressors.

Based on the ability of reversible metal hydride alloys to compress hydrogen, this hydride water pump uses the energy from solar heated water to operate a well in Del Rio, Texas.

When heat is applied to a metal hydride container, the stored hydrogen is released from the alloy under pressure.  The gas pressure pushes a piston, creating a powerful linear motion in a mechanical system.  In the same way, when the container is cooled, the hydrogen reenters the metal hydride causing linear motion of the piston in the opposite direction.  The pressure of the hydrogen gas is proportional to the metal hydride temperature, so precise positioning of a bellows or piston can be achieved by controlling the hydride temperature.

These air conditioners have two hydride heat exchanger beds.  Each bed contains individual, hermetically sealed hydride tubes, 500 0.125” diameter tubes in the 1994 unit and 600 0.0625” diameter tubes in the 2004 unit.  Each tube is essentially a miniature air conditioner, with one half containing a high pressure (cooling) alloy and the other half containing a low pressure (regenerating) alloy.  When one of the beds is cooling passenger compartment air, the other is being regenerated by hot exhaust gas.  Ambient air provides the heat rejection function.  Sliding gate valves direct the air flows to the appropriate hydride section.  Efficiency is on the order of 1 BTU of cooling for each 3 BTU of heat input.