Performance Bench Testing of Automotive-Scale Hydrogen on Demand™ Hydrogen Generation Technology

Millennium Cell has developed a novel catalytic process (called Hydrogen on Demand™) that generates high purity hydrogen gas from air-stable, non-flammable, water-based solutions of sodium borohydride, NaBH₄. This paper discusses initial performance bench testing of an automotive-scale hydrogen generation system based on our proprietary technology. Our system was coupled to a hydrogen flow controller system designed to simulate the hydrogen draw of a large (>50 kW net) fuel cell engine. The controller was programmed to emulate various driving cycles, and behavior of the Hydrogen on Demand™ system under realistic load transient conditions was measured. The testing indicates that the Hydrogen on Demand™ system successfully provides hydrogen under realistic load conditions, and that the data are qualitatively indistinguishable from the runs performed with compressed hydrogen gas.