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Efficient regeneration of partially spent ammonia borane fuel

Journal Article · · Angewandte Chemie. International Edition in English
OSTI ID:960522

A necessary target in realizing a hydrogen (H{sub 2}) economy, especially for the transportation sector, is its storage for controlled delivery, presumably to an energy producing fuel cell. In this vein, the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Centers of Excellence (CoE) in Hydrogen Storage have pursued different methodologies, including metal hydrides, chemical hydrides, and sorbents, for the expressed purpose of supplanting gasoline's current > 300 mile driving range. Chemical hydrogen storage has been dominated by one appealing material, ammonia borane (H{sub 3}B-NH{sub 3}, AB), due to its high gravimetric capacity of hydrogen (19.6 wt %) and low molecular weight (30.7 g mol{sup -1}). In addition, AB has both hydridic and protic moieties, yielding a material from which H2 can be readily released. As such, a number of publications have described H{sub 2} release from amine boranes, yielding various rates depending on the method applied. Even though the viability of any chemical hydrogen storage system is critically dependent on efficient recyclability, reports on the latter subject are sparse, invoke the use of high energy reducing agents, and suffer from low yields. For example, the DOE recently decided to no longer pursue the use of NaBH{sub 4} as a H{sub 2} storage material, in part because of inefficient regeneration. We thus endeavored to find an energy efficient regeneration process for the spent fuel from H{sub 2} depleted AB with a minimum number of steps.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)
Sponsoring Organization:
DOE
DOE Contract Number:
AC52-06NA25396
OSTI ID:
960522
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-08-06015; LA-UR-08-6015
Journal Information:
Angewandte Chemie. International Edition in English, Journal Name: Angewandte Chemie. International Edition in English Journal Issue: 37 Vol. 48; ISSN 0570-0833; ISSN ACIEAY
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English