An integrated apparatus for production and measurement of molecular hydrogen

Abstract

An integrated apparatus designed to carry out online accurate gas-volumetric (GV) measurements of chemicals generated in a reaction chamber is described here. In particular, such equipment is useful to quantify the molecular hydrogen produced into a small reactor via metal-catalysed hydrolysis of sodium borohydride. In its standard configuration the reactor is coupled to a hydrogenmeter relying on accurate weight measurements of water volumes displaced by the same hydrogen volumes produced during the reaction course. Both static (total gas evolved) and dynamic (rate of evolution) information on the analysed gas-mixture is accessible by such an apparatus. Finally, it can be easily interfaced with other quantitative techniques, such as gas-chromatographic (GC) or flow-measurement (FM) techniques. The apparatus is original in many technical solutions which have been adopted: (i) any kind of catalyst can be tested thanks to the insertion device (interchangeable sample plate, ISP), (ii) catalyst is dipped into solution in situ without system opening, (iii) work conditions are continuously monitored, and (iv) system control and data collection are completely automated. The apparatus has been designed to withstand rough usage, for easy and trouble-free manipulation, rapid and complete gas measurements and easy readability.