Evaluation of Hydrogen Yield by Hydrolysis from Waste Magnesium Based Materials Catalysed By Stainless Steel Net in Iron Chloride Solution

Abstract

Hydrogen (H2) economy more and more attention and it is soon to become a priority development to all nations around the globe. H2 offers a wide range of benefits and the greatest of them all is its ability and flexibility to be used as a green energy carrier. More and more car manufacturers are following suit in moving from prototyping to commercial demonstrations of fuel cell electric cars. Natural gas and coal are currently the cheapest sources of hydrogen and are likely to remain so. In the present study, magnesium waste-based materials from end of life products were used as raw materials in the presence of iron chloride added water solution to generate hydrogen gas. Magnesium (Mg) reacts slowly with water and releases hydrogen at room temperature and this is followed by the formation of magnesium hydroxide on its surface. This reaction was accelerated by an addition of 1.5 wt% of iron chloride. The results confirmed iron chloride as an excellent hydrolysis reaction accelerator with stainless steel as an effective catalyst. On average, the reaction yielded 2700mL of H2 over 3600 seconds.