A practical metal hydride based hydrogen storage device would consist of many filters to distribute hydrogen gas and heat exchanger tubes to cool or heat the hydride bed depending on whether hydrogen is being absorbed or desorbed. This paper presents the simulation of such a device with LaNi5 as the hydriding alloy. A study of the geometric and operating parameters has been carried out to identify their influence in the hydriding performance of the storage device. (c) 2007 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.