Exploration of CBNs as Hydrogen Storage Material

R&D Focus Areas:
Hydrides, Liquid organic carriers, Synthetic fuels and chemicals

Lead Organisation:
University of Technology Sydney

Partners:
Korea Gas Corporation

Status:
Completed

Start date:
June 2018

Completion date:
December 2019

Key contacts:
Professor Zhenguo Huang: zhenguo.huang@uts.edu.au

Funding:
Korea Gas Corporation

Project total cost:
US$435,000

Project summary description:
This project was carried out under the sponsorship of KOGAS. The focus was on carbon-boron-nitrogen (CBN) containing hydrogen-rich molecules as hydrogen carriers. New methods were developed to scale up the syntheses of certain CBN molecules and efforts were made to synthesise new CBN molecules.

Among all the systems screened, ethylenediamine bisborane (EDAB) showed remarkable room-temperature dehydrogenation in ethylenediamine. This performance far exceeds the capabilities of other CBN compounds, which require high temperature to achieve dehydrogenation. Pt/C was shown to have a far higher catalytic ability for this system than other transition metal-based catalysts.

The dehydrogenation products can also be readily regenerated back to EDAB at room temperature using NaBH4 as a reducing agent, allowing for multiple dehydrogenation and rehydrogenation cycles under mild conditions. New systems were also found which confirms the potential of CBN compounds for hydrogen storage.

Related publications and key links:
Not applicable

Higher degree studies supported:
One PhD student at University of Technology Sydney was supported.

 

January 2023