I worked for a startup called Millennial Cell in Eatontown, NJ that produced hydrogen for cars. We made it from NaBH4 in alkaline solution that produced hydrogen as you needed it. It was called Hydrogen on Demand. We took an old Ford Bronco and converted it. We rode around our industrial park and just kept increasing the speed to see how fast it would go (it got up to 50 mph). A cop stopped us. Here are 4 people in white lab coats and goggles writing down notes in the car. We told the cop what we were doing and he said, well, I think I heard something about that but just stay at the speed limit and he let us go without a ticket.
I'm curious, what is the advantage of using NaBH4? Whe you said "on demand", it sounds like H2 was being made in the Bronco with on-board battery electrical?
Yes, the hydrogen was produced in the bronco. Here's a summary-
A novel, simple, convenient, and safe, chemical process generates high purity hydrogen gas on demand from stable, aqueous solutions of sodium borohydride, NaBH,, and ruthenium based (Ru), catalyst. When NaBH, solution contacts Ru catalyst, it spontaneously hydrolyzes to form H, gas and sodium borate, a water-soluble, inert salt. When H, is no longer required, Ru is removed from the solution and H, generation stops. Since this H, generator is safer, has quicker response to H, demand, and is more efficient, than commonly used H, generators, it is ideal for portable applications.
I worked for a startup called Millennial Cell in Eatontown, NJ that produced hydrogen for cars. We made it from NaBH4 in alkaline solution that produced hydrogen as you needed it. It was called Hydrogen on Demand. We took an old Ford Bronco and converted it. We rode around our industrial park and just kept increasing the speed to see how fast it would go (it got up to 50 mph). A cop stopped us. Here are 4 people in white lab coats and goggles writing down notes in the car. We told the cop what we were doing and he said, well, I think I heard something about that but just stay at the speed limit and he let us go without a ticket.
I'm curious, what is the advantage of using NaBH4? Whe you said "on demand", it sounds like H2 was being made in the Bronco with on-board battery electrical?
Yes, the hydrogen was produced in the bronco. Here's a summary- A novel, simple, convenient, and safe, chemical process generates high purity hydrogen gas on demand from stable, aqueous solutions of sodium borohydride, NaBH,, and ruthenium based (Ru), catalyst. When NaBH, solution contacts Ru catalyst, it spontaneously hydrolyzes to form H, gas and sodium borate, a water-soluble, inert salt. When H, is no longer required, Ru is removed from the solution and H, generation stops. Since this H, generator is safer, has quicker response to H, demand, and is more efficient, than commonly used H, generators, it is ideal for portable applications.
It’ll only be allowed to succeed if Chy-nah controls the world’s ruthenium supply.
The Chinese are already in on it - coming up with different catalyst, e.g. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsanm.1c03067
But it was Steve Amendola who came up with this.