A metal-hydride reactor equipped by a spiral heat exchanger is experimentally studied. The inserted exchanger provides significant insights into the problem of minimizing the total storage time by manipulating the operating parameters. Performance studies are carried out by varying the supply pressure, volume of the tank, absorption temperature, and overall heat transfer coefficient. At any given absorption temperature, hydrogen absorption rate and storage capacity are found to increase with supply pressure. Cooling fluid temperature is found to have a significant effect on hydrogen storage time and higher values of the overall heat transfer coefficient yields better rates of absorption and desorption. Hydriding time mainly depends on the successful heat removal from the bed. A reactor equipped with an exchanger that provides more heat transfer area significantly reduces hydriding time. (c) 2007 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.