Optimized hydrogen generation in a semicontinuous sodium borohydride hydrolysis reactor for a 60 W-scale fuel cell stack

Catalyzed hydrolysis of sodium borohydride (SBH) is a promising method for the hydrogen supply of fuel cells. In this study a system for controlled production of hydrogen from aqueous sodium borohydride (SBH) solutions has been designed and built. This simple and low cost system operates under controlled addition of stabilized SBH solutions (fuel solutions) to a supported CoB catalyst. The system works at constant temperature delivering hydrogen at 1 L min−1 constant rate to match a 60-W polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). For optimization of the system, several experimental conditions were changed and their effect was investigated. A simple model based only on thermodynamic considerations was proposed to optimize system parameters at constant temperature and hydrogen evolution rate. It was found that, for a given SBH concentration, the use of the adequate fuel addition rate can maximize the total conversion and therefore the gravimetric storage capacity. The hydrogen storage capacity was as high as 3.5 wt% for 19 wt% SBH solution at 90% fuel conversion and an operation temperature of 60 °C. It has been demonstrated that these optimized values can also be achieved for a wide range of hydrogen generation rates. Studies on the durability of the catalyst showed that a regeneration step is needed to restore the catalytic activity before reusing.