Transport Phenomena Research Center

Publications

Scale-up of a clean hydrogen production system through the hydrolysis of sodium borohydride for off-grid applications

Publication . Silva, Diogo; Nunes, Helder Xavier; Rangel, Carmen M.; Pinto, A. M. F. R.

ABSTRACT: Hydrogen is considered a promising energy vector with the potential to replace fossil fuels, and sodium borohydride serves as an effective energy carrier capable of releasing hydrogen (H2) for off-grid applications. However, the hydrolysis of sodium borohydride has only matured at laboratory-scale. Therefore, the scale-up of a laboratory reactor was designed and manufactured to study the effect of larger H2 production. For that, the effect of inhibitor NaOH concentration and water quality were studied. Experiments using 3 wt% NaOH showed overall better performance than those using 1 wt%. Additionally, experiments using tap water - scarcely reported in the literature - demonstrated performance equal to or better than that achieved with distilled water. These results are indicative of a possible significant reduction in the H2 production cost through this method.

2025-07Journal article

Open access