📢 Publication Alert 📢

06-02-2024

Publication in International Journal of Hydrogen Energy.

The replacement of non-renewable fossil fuels by sustainable alternatives 🍀, such as hydrogen gas, is common knowledge. Since hydrogen is storable, it is carrying energy that can be released at any time, which is required for applications in e.g. fuel cells and fuel engines of ships 🚢 and trucks 🚛. However, the storage of hydrogen in its physical form comes with a high cost 💲 and an explosion hazard 💥. This makes hydrogen storage in the form of sodium borohydride (NaBH4) more preferable.

In our latest (publication), we evaluated the performance, reusability and regeneration of a sulfonic acid ion exchange resin (Lewatit K1221) supported Co-B catalyst in the NaBH4 hydrolysis reaction at conditions feasible for their practical implementation in fuel cells and fuel engines of ships and trucks. The catalyst showed the highest activity at the studied reaction conditions compared to the State-of-the-Art 💪. The catalyst deactivated in consecutive reactions. A specific deactivation study showed which of the hypothesized deactivation mechanisms was prevailing and also pointed out towards acid regeneration, which was investigated at different concentrations. Regeneration of the deactivated catalyst with 0.04 M HCl was successful in regaining and even increasing the initial catalytic performance.

--> In conclusion, this highly performant catalyst has great potential for H2 generation.