New Methods to Generate Hydrogen from Boron Compounds and Water for Fuel-Cell Applications
Author(s)
Varma, Arvind
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Abstract
Sodium borohydride (SBH; NABH4) and ammonia borane (AB; NH3BH3) contain 10.8 and 19.6 wt%
H2, respectively, and are promising hydrogen storage materials for PEM fuel cell power systems. To
release hydrogen from these compounds, thermolysis, catalytic hydrolysis, exothermic reactions with
solid oxidizers or heat generated by additional reactive mixtures have been employed. All the current
methods, however, have disadvantages which decrease the efficiency of hydrogen storage systems. In this
work, we report new approaches to release hydrogen from SBH or AB, and simultaneously from water,
which do not require any catalyst and provide relatively high hydrogen yield and environmentally benign
byproducts. One such approach involves metal/water combustion reactions, which provide heat for SBH
or AB dehydrogenation and release additional hydrogen from water. The second approach thermally
activates AB hydrolysis in aqueous AB solutions and slurries under modest inert gas pressure. The third
approach involves AB thermolysis alone, with effective reaction heat management. The investigations
include digital video recording, pressure monitoring, thermocouple measurements, gas chromatography,
mass spectrometry, powder XRD analysis, NMR spectroscopy and isotopic (deuterium) labeling. The
results show that the proposed methods are promising for hydrogen storage involving SBH or AB. The
combustion-based methods could be used in compact power sources for portable electronic devices, while
AB hydrothermolysis or thermolysis are attractive for vehicle transportation applications.
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Date
2010-12-01
Extent
69:41 minutes
Resource Type
Moving Image
Resource Subtype
Lecture