Out of the many promising applications of metal hydrides, refrigeration, heat pumping and heat transformation are important. In order to achieve improved performance, a novel three-alloy cycle is proposed in which, for heat input at an intermediate temperature, heat outputs at high temperature and also at warm temperature are obtained in addition to refrigeration. The performance of this cycle using the alloys LaNi4.6Sn0.4, LaNi4.7Al0.3 and MmNi(4.5)Al(0.5) is studied based on thermodynamics and reaction kinetics. Coefficients of performance, half-cycle times and specific alloy outputs are evaluated. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.