Geo Jong Kim, Savannah G. Hunt, Allison Millspaugh, Byeong Uk Kim, Sang Bum Kim, Hyun Tae Hwang
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Due to the rapid depletion of fossil fuels and pollution from their use, finding an alternative fuel is becoming increasingly important. Hydrogen is considered one of the best contenders, as its by-product is water. However, safe methods to store hydrogen must be developed to use hydrogen as an effective energy carrier or source. Sodium borohydride (NaBH4, SBH) has been attracting great attention as a hydrogen storage material because of its relatively high hydrogen content and low material cost. Hydrogen can be produced through thermolysis or hydrolysis of SBH. Unfortunately, thermolysis requires extremely high temperatures (> 300 °C), while hydrolysis needs an excessive amount of water because the solubilities of SBH and the spent fuel in water are low. In addition, when SBH is present with water, it can cause problems in safety and storage due to the spontaneous generation of hydrogen. In our prior work, it has been demonstrated that solid-state hydrolysis of SBH offers improved safety and high hydrogen yield. Despite these favorable outcomes, separating the products to regenerate spent fuel to lower the overall cost remains challenging. Here, we proposed the hydrolysis of SBH and water formed by thermal dehydration of sodium metaborate tetrahydrate (NaBO2 4H2O, SMB4H). Since the mixture of SBH and SMB4H is stable at ambient conditions, the safety risk due to self-hydrolysis of SBH is eliminated. Additionally, since the final products are homogeneous with sodium metaborate (NaBO4·xH2O, SMB), a product of the hydrolysis of SBH, it is expected that separation cost can be saved when regenerating the spent fuel. Using this approach, maximum overall H2 yields of 4.7 and 5.1wt% were obtained at 200 and 250 °C, respectively. With high hydrogen yield and safety and potential reduction in separating process costs during regeneration, this proposed method is promising for hydrogen storage for fuel cell applications.
期刊介绍:
The Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering provides a global forum for the dissemination of research in chemical engineering. The Journal publishes significant research results obtained in the Asia-Pacific region, and simultaneously introduces recent technical progress made in other areas of the world to this region. Submitted research papers must be of potential industrial significance and specifically concerned with chemical engineering. The editors will give preference to papers having a clearly stated practical scope and applicability in the areas of chemical engineering, and to those where new theoretical concepts are supported by new experimental details. The Journal also regularly publishes featured reviews on emerging and industrially important subjects of chemical engineering as well as selected papers presented at international conferences on the subjects.