Water and Heat Balance in a Fuel Cell Vehicle with a Sodium Borohydride Hydrogen Fuel Processor

Abstract

<div class="htmlview paragraph">The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) collaborated with Millennium Cell and DaimlerChrysler to study heat and water management in a sodium borohydride (NaBH<sub>4</sub>) storage/processor used to supply hydrogen to a fuel cell in an automotive application. Knowledge of heat and water flows in this system is necessary to maximize the storage concentration of NaBH<sub>4</sub>, which increases vehicle range. This work helps evaluate the NaBH<sub>4</sub> system's potential to meet the FreedomCAR program technical target of 6 wt% hydrogen for hydrogen storage technologies. This paper also illustrates the advantages of integrating the NaBH<sub>4</sub> hydrogen processor with the fuel cell.</div>