Hydrogen Production and Storage from Recycled Aluminum

Overview: New Brunswick, and the Canadian government has set a goal of becoming carbon neutral by the year 2050 by using less fossil fuels and developing alternative energy sources. Hydrogen gas is an attractive alternative fuel as it is energy dense, transportable, abundant, and does not produce carbon dioxide upon combustion. This project aims to scale-up the production of a material capable of both storing hydrogen gas and function as a carbon-capture material for heavy industry. This material is produced from recycled aluminum and either formic acid or acetic acid (both sustainable reagents). A benefit of this process is that hydrogen gas is produced as a byproduct and can be recovered and used as fuel.

Prior Art: We have shown that we can easily produce this material (and hydrogen gas) on the lab scale, and have filed IP protection on the novel aspects of this process.

Objectives: Building on our existing process we will (1) demonstrate that this process can be achieved on the kilogram scale and confirm purity of both our porous solid and hydrogen gas byproduct; and (2) demonstrate that, as a stepping-stone, we can accelerate the production process to produce 1 Kg of material within 72 hours. With each of these objectives achieved, we will have developed a scaled-up approach to producing a hydrogen storage/carbon-capture material from sustainable sources, the first of its kind and our target IP. Follow-on support would back the next stage scale-up to hundreds of kilograms per year.

Concluding statement: This project will develop the next step in a scaled process to produce a hydrogen storage and carbon-capture material from sustainable sources, while also developing the training and skills of a young researcher. We will be drawing from our expertise in producing porous materials to ultimately benefit Canadian residents, and the NB economy.