Hydrogen export using a powder project

R&D Focus Areas:
Hydrides, Technology integration process improvement

Lead Organisation:
Curtin University

Partners:
Velox Energy Materials

Status:
Active

Start date:
March 2024

Completion date:
May 2029

Key contacts:
Distinguished Professor Craig Buckley – c.buckley@curtin.edu.au

Funding:
AUD$5 million – Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA)
AUD$2.5 million – Velox Energy Materials
AUD$1 million – Curtin University

Project total cost:
AUD$16.47 million

Project summary description (as published by ARENA):
The award recipient will develop an efficient regeneration process to reconvert NaBO₂ (sodium borate) into NaBH₄ (sodium borohydride) using renewable energy to enable hydrogen export in a safe and low-cost manner.

There are three key core research stage activities required to optimise production cost and allow for scaling the process for commercial production:

• Optimisation of electrochemistry at increasing scale: Optimise the electrochemical conditions including voltage, current density, catalyst loading/composition, electrode configuration and membrane selection. This will allow sodium borohydride production at lower energy input and larger scale – effectively lowering the cost of hydrogen regeneration. The energy usage target is < 200 kWh/kg hydrogen;
• Sodium borohydride processing: Optimise the extraction of sodium borohydride from the electrochemical cell for high throughput (via preferential dissolution in solvents, or by membrane filtration) to allow for continuous flow production of powder ready for export; and
• High pressure hydrogen generation: Optimise a reactor process to allow for rapid hydrogen production from sodium borohydride at scale, with control over hydrogen production rates.

The core research stage will directly feed into the research commercialisation stage (pilot scale) to enable testing of critical chemical production and processing sub-systems in conjunction with cost optimisation protocols.

Related publications and key links:
https://arena.gov.au/projects/hydrogen-export-using-a-powder-project/

Higher degree studies supported:
Three PhD students are supported.

 

Reviewed: August 2024