Hydrogen production from aluminum waste with sodium activator using aluminum-water method

Abstract

The production of hydrogen as one of the fuel cell fuels is a challenge in producing hydrogen with high purity. The production of hydrogen gas from aluminum waste using the aluminum-water method was successfully by adding sodium activator with varying concentrations and NaOH as a catalyst to damage the oxide layer so that aluminum reacts with water to produce hydrogen gas. The best conditions in the aluminum-water reaction are 1 g aluminum with a sodium activator of 1.5 mL water volume, 7 wt% sodium content, and 60 mesh aluminum particle size. The hydrogen production using sodium activator at the best conditions produced hydrogen gas of 502 mL when NaOH catalyst added produced hydrogen gas of 862 mL. The highest reaction rate of hydrogen gas production by adding sodium activator to the selected conditions was 65 mL/min, while NaOH as catalyst was 160 mL/min.