Kinetic Evaluation and Catalytic Efficiency of Sebacic Acid as a Novel Catalyst in Hydrogen Generation via NaBH4 Alcoholysis Reactions

This study explores the use of sebacic acid, a catalyst not previously examined in the literature, for hydrogen production from NaBH4 through methanolysis and ethanolysis reactions. Solutions of sebacic acid with concentrations ranging from 0.1 M to 0.4 M were prepared and tested. At a concentration of 0.3 M, 90% of the hydrogen from a 0.33 M NaBH4 solution was released within 3 s, and full release was achieved in 4 s. Hydrogen production rates reached 4500 mL/min for ethanolysis and 4845 mL/min for methanolysis, with methanolysis reactions proving faster. The activation energies for methanolysis and ethanolysis were calculated as 7.17 kJ/mol and 52.3 kJ/mol, respectively. These results demonstrate that sebacic acid enables rapid and efficient hydrogen production, offering a new approach that significantly advances current hydrogen production methods.