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Application of Liquid Nitrogen Cold Trap for Purification of Hydrogen Gas Stream Generated from NaBH₄



Author(s)

Wameath S. Abdul-Majeed, Gulcan M. Seradaroglu and William B. Zimmerman

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DOI:10.17265/1934-7375/2012.05.005

Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, the University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 3JD, UK

The feasibility of using liquid nitrogen cold trap (LNCT) for the removal of water vapour and alkaline mist from the hydrogen gas stream which is generated from the catalytic and acidic decomposition of sodium borohydride is investigated. Practically, the target application is mobile fuel cells based on hydrogen production from storage in chemical hydrides. The LNCT would be used as a one step purification method with less cost and space requirements instead of applying the conventional purification techniques. Two catalysts were investigated for the production of hydrogen from the aqueous solution of NaBH₄ in a small scale packed bed reaction column. The hydrogen generated from the catalytic decomposition of NaBH₄ was accompanied by limited quantity of water vapour and alkaline mist. Nonetheless, higher quantities were generated when applying the acidic decomposition of NaBH₄ and consequently the utilization of LNCT for H₂ purification has proved useful and lead to a reduction in the content of these impurities; thereby the concentration of hydrogen in the outlet stream has increased.

Solid state hydrogen storage, hydrogen generation from sodium borohydride, liquid nitrogen cold trap