In this paper a plate reactor for metal hydride applications is presented and experimentally characterized. Through an optimized heat transfer characteristic the concept is suitable for all metal hydride high performance systems, where short reaction times are required. The experimental characterization using metal hydride Hydralloy (R) C5 reveals that very short half-cycle times (t < 60 s) are feasible enabling small and compact systems. With regard to the application of an open metal hydride cooling system for fuel cell vehicles and a cooling temperature of 10 degrees C, single reactor experiments lead to a high specific cooling power of 1.31 kW kg(MeH)(-1). In a continuous working system where thermal losses are considered, still 690 W kg(MeH)(-1) can be reached. (C) 2017 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.