Abstract:
The sodium borohydride (NaBH4)-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 NaBH4-based hydrolysis system. The system was composed of alkaline aqueous solution of NaBH4 and solid powder mixture of Al and Co2B catalyst. The effects of alkaline concentration, NaBH4 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 NaBH4 and the Al/H2O reaction. As a consequence, this system exhibited distinct advantages over the conventional NaBH4-based system in terms of HG rate, fuel conversion, hydrogen density and H2 production cost. These favourable attributes make the (NaBH4+Al)/H2O system attractive for mobile/portable hydrogen source applications.

Keywords: Aluminum Powder, Co2B Catalyst, Hydrolysis, Hydrogen Generation, Sodium Borohydride CLICK HERE for complete article