This paper reports on an experimental investigation and numerical simulations of the heating dynamics during hydrogen charging in activated carbon packed bed storage tank. Results showed that the experimentally observed heating dynamics is well predicted using a two-dimensional transport model that makes use of classical averaging rules usually adopted to describe flows in porous media and a linear driving force model to describe the adsorption kinetics. The contribution of the different phenomena to the overall temperature increase of the tank during the charging process was analysed both experimentally and using the developed numerical model. Results showed that the adsorption process is responsible for about 24% of the temperature increase even for moderately adsorbing activated carbon. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.