Production of sodium borohydride from borax and investigation of reaction parameters

ABSTRACTWorld energy requirements are mostly provided by fossil fuels which are known as primaryenergy sources. Recently, because of decreasing of fossil energy sources and increasing ofenvironmental pollution; the fossil energy system must be replaced with new and renewableenergy systems. Therefore hydrogen energy became much more important.Hydrogen which has the highest energy storage capacity per unit weight among other fuels, isthe most simple and common element in the universe. Hydrogen is not a natural fuel; it is asynthetic fuel which is produced through different sources such as water, fossil fuels andbiomass.One of the most important features of hydrogen is that it can easily be stored. Pure hydrogenin gaseous and liquid form can be stored in tanks, as well as physically stored in carbonnanotubes and also can be chemically stored as hydrides. On the other hand, in the mobileapplications, hydrogen should be stored more safely. In this case, boron based systems aremuch more advantageous, especially NaBH4.In this study, low and high pressure processes are developed to produce NaBH4, in whichborax is used as a boron source. Results are shown that, NaBH4 can be used high efficientlyhydrogen storage medium.Keywords: Sodium borohydride, borax, hydrogen energy, fuel cells.