Magnesium hydrogenation being an exothermic reaction, the loading time of a tank is limited by heat extraction. The compaction of ball-milled MgH2 associated with Expanded Natural Graphite was used to improve the thermal conductivity of the resulting compacts. Taking advantage of these compacts, an intermediate scale tank (1.8 kg MgH2) cooled down by forced air circulation was designed. The absorption is initiated at 90 degrees C. Since the intrinsic kinetic is not the limiting factor, the hydrogen pressure does not affect the loading process. The loading time is strongly dependent on the cooling efficiency. However, beyond a given air flow rate it doesn't decrease any more, the heat transfer being limited by the thermal conductivity of the compacted disks. During desorption, the maximum hydrogen flow (25 Nl/mn) is directly proportional to the thermal power of the heating system. The tank absorbs 1170 Nl, has a specific-energy of 270 W h/kg and a system volumetric-density of 42 gr/l. Copyright (C) 2011, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.