Sodium borohydride for solid-state hydrogen export

R&D Focus Areas:
Export potential, Direct hydrogen carrier production, Hydrides

Lead Organisation:
Curtin University

Partners:
Western Australia Hydrogen (WAH)

Status:
Active

Start date:
January 2020

Completion date:
March 2025

Key contacts:
Project lead: Professor C.E. Buckley – c.buckley@curtin.edu.au
Other contact: M. Paskevicius – M.Paskevicius@curtin.edu.au

Funding:
AUD$584,731 – Australian Research Council
AUD$300,000 – WAH
AUD$77,547 – Curtin University

 Project total cost:
AUD$962,278

Project summary description:
Sodium borohydride for solid-state green hydrogen export. This project aims to develop a new method of producing, storing, and exporting green hydrogen using Australian resources. Sodium borohydride will be produced from borax using renewable energy and exported internationally to countries that desire hydrogen from renewable sources to replace fossil fuels. Green hydrogen will be released from sodium borohydride by adding water. The spent material will then be shipped back to Australia for recycling back to sodium borohydride, creating a closed-loop energy cycle using renewable energy. This will create a new export industry in Australia by expanding current mining expertise whilst harnessing our wealth of renewable energy to potentially deliver billions of dollars of revenue.

Related publications and key links:

• Ibrahim, A., Paskevicius, M., Buckley, C.E. (2023) ‘Chemical Compression and Transport of Hydrogen using Sodium Borohydride’, Sustainable Energy & Fuels, 7, 1196-1203. https://doi.org/10.1039/D2SE01334G
• Liu, Y., Paskevicius, M., Humphries, T.D., Buckley, C.E. (2022) ‘Simultaneous preparation of sodium borohydride and ammonia gas by ball milling’, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 47, 25347-25356. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2022.05.262
• Dematteis, E.M., Amdisen, M.B., Autrey, T., Barale, J., Bowden, M.E., Buckley, C.E., Cho, Y.W., Deledda, S., Dornheim, M., de Jongh, P., Grinderslev, J.B., Gizer, G., Gulino, V., Hauback, B.C., Heere, M., Heo, T.W., Humphries, T.D., Jensen, T.R., Kang, S.Y., Lee, Y.-S., Li, H.-W., Li, S., Møller, K.T., Ngene, P., Orimo, S.-I., Paskevicius, M., Polanski, M., Takagi, S., Wan, L., Wood, B., Hirscher, M., Baricco, M., (2022) ‘Hydrogen storage in complex hydrides: past activities and new trends’, Progress in Energy, 4, 032009. https://doi.org/10.1088/2516-1083/ac7499

Higher degree studies supported:
One Ph.D. student at Curtin University.

 

Reviewed: August 2024