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Combined Usage of Sodium Borohydride and Aluminum Powder for High‐performance Hydrogen Generation
Author(s) -
Dai H.B.,
Ma G.L.,
Xia H.J.,
Wang P.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
fuel cells
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.485
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1615-6854
pISSN - 1615-6846
DOI - 10.1002/fuce.201100015
Subject(s) - sodium borohydride , hydrolysis , hydrogen , hydrogen production , hydrogen storage , borohydride , aqueous solution , catalysis , chemistry , aluminium , inorganic chemistry , chemical engineering , materials science , organic chemistry , engineering
Abstract The sodium borohydride (NaBH 4 )‐based hydrolysis system has received considerable interest as a potential hydrogen source for vehicular application. But its practical application was greatly restricted by the low hydrogen density and high material cost. In the present study, we reported that addition of aluminum (Al) powder is an easy but highly effective way for addressing the problems of the NaBH 4 ‐based hydrolysis system. The system was composed of alkaline aqueous solution of NaBH 4 and solid powder mixture of Al and Co 2 B catalyst. The effects of alkaline concentration, NaBH 4 concentration and Al amount on the hydrogen generation (HG) performance of the system were investigated. Our study showed that there exist a mutual‐promoting mechanism between the hydrolysis reaction of NaBH 4 and the Al/H 2 O reaction. As a consequence, this system exhibited distinct advantages over the conventional NaBH 4 ‐based system in terms of HG rate, fuel conversion, hydrogen density and H 2 production cost. These favourable attributes make the (NaBH 4 +Al)/H 2 O system attractive for mobile/portable hydrogen source applications.