A Sodium Borohydride On-board Hydrogen Generator for Powering Fuel Cell and Internal Combustion Engine Vehicles

Hydrogen gas, H₂, is the environmentally desirable fuel of choice for powering fuel cells and internal combustion engines. However, hydrogen is extremely difficult to store, handle, and transport. One major hurdle to commercializing hydrogen-powered vehicles is providing a way to effectively and safely generate, store, and deliver the large amounts of H₂ needed to achieve acceptable vehicle range while minimizing the weight and volume of the storage system. Millennium Cell has developed a novel catalytic process that generates high purity H₂ gas from air-stable, non-flammable, hydrogen-rich water-based solutions of sodium borohydride, NaBH₄. This on-board system has already been used by Millennium Cell to successfully power a hydrogen powered series-hybrid sport utility vehicle [1], a full size six-passenger sedan with an internal combustion engine running on hydrogen gas, and is currently being installed into a fuel cell vehicle.