Investigation of hydrogen production from boron compounds for pem fuel cells

This paper presents a comprehensive study of hydrogen production from sodium borohydride (NaBH₄), which is synthesized from sodium tetraborate (Na₂B₄O₇) decomposition, for proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells. For this purpose, Na₂B₄O₇ decomposition reaction at 450-500 °C under hydrogen atmosphere and NaBH₄ decomposition reaction at 25-40 °C under atmospheric pressure are selected as a common temperature range in practice, and the inlet molar quantities of Na₂B₄O₇ are chosen from 1 to 6 mol with 0.5 mol interval as well. In order to form NaBH₄ solution with 7.5 wt.% NaBH₄, 1 wt.% NaOH, 91.5 wt.% H₂O, the molar quantities of NaBH₄ are determined. For a PEM fuel cell operation, the required hydrogen production rates are estimated depending on 60, 65, 70 and 75 g of catalyst used in the NaBH₄ solution at 25, 32.5 and 40 °C, respectively. It is concluded that the highest rate of hydrogen production per unit area from NaBH₄ solution at 40 °C is found to be 3.834 × 10^-5 g H₂ s^-1 cm^-2 for 75 g catalyst. Utilizing 80% of this hydrogen production, the maximum amounts of power generation from a PEM fuel cell per unit area at 80 °C under 5 atm are estimated as 1.121 W cm^-2 for 0.016 cm by utilizing hydrogen from 75 g catalyst assisted NaBH₄ solution at 40 °C.