- One of the great challenges of hydrogen is its transport
- This method makes it possible to use sodium borohydride as a carrier in a cheaper and more sustainable way
One of the great challenges of hydrogen is its transport. As a gas it is flammable, unstable and difficult to handle in large volumes due to its low density. Compressing or liquefying it carries a significant energy and economic cost. But Australia, which hopes to become an exporter of green hydrogen, has come up with an affordable method of transporting it in powder form.
How hydrogen is normally transported. Hydrogen is an energy vector that can be used to store and export renewable energy to other countries. Spain aspires to export green hydrogen to the rest of Europe through a corridor of hydrogen stations connected by gas pipelines: the famous H2Med.
Australia has no choice but to transport hydrogen by sea. Specialized vessels already exist to move liquid hydrogen, but it is more common to use refrigerated ships to transport ammonia and other liquid organic carriers, which then release the hydrogen through chemical reactions.
Hydrogen in powder form. Why isn’t it transported in solid state? A cheap and safe possibility is to use sodium borohydride powder as a carrier, but this is not usually done because the byproduct left in the process, known as sodium metaborate, is very expensive to recycle.
Now, a team of Australian researchers has developed a chemical catalyst process that can quickly and cheaply convert sodium metaborate into sodium borohydride.
Objective: to reduce transport costs. The Kotai Hydrogen Project, born at John Curtin University, seeks to reduce the costs of producing and transporting hydrogen to become “the cheapest means of exporting hydrogen from Australia”, according to its creators.
While one ton of ammonia is enough to make 178 kg of hydrogen, one ton of sodium borohydride produces 213 kg of hydrogen when water is added. The key to the method is that the resulting sodium metaborate can be recharged with proprietary electrolyzers to make sodium borohydride 20 times cheaper.
Australia as a hydrogen powerhouse. Australia has positioned itself as a key player in the hydrogen export market thanks to public and private investments. The country expects to produce and export large quantities of green hydrogen on the international market by 2030.
In addition, Australia wants to become a natural hydrogen extractive powerhouse. The state of South Australia sits on a block of cratonized crust known as the Gawler Craton, whose iron and uranium mines could hold millions of tons of free hydrogen.
SOURCE: Xataka
Original Article In Spanish: Australia tiene una solución para vender hidrógeno más barato: transportarlo en polvo (xataka.com)
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