A metal hydride based hydrogen compressor is studied experimentally by varying the operating parameters such as supply pressure and heat source temperature using MmNi(4.6)Al(0.4) alloy. The compressor performance is found to improve at higher heat source temperatures. For a given hot fluid temperature, the influence of supply pressure on system performance is prominent up to about 10 bar. Maximum efficiency of 7.3% is obtained at a pressure ratio of 8.8 at 95 ° C heat source temperature. Results obtained by a simulation compared well with the experimental data. © 2004 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.