Solid hydrogen carriers, such as sodium borohydride or potassium borohydride, are seen as promising options to enable the use of hydrogen as a fuel for marine vessels, because of their favourable gravimetric and volumetric energy density compared to compressed or liquefied hydrogen. When using solid hydrogen carriers, in the form of granules or powder, as fuel for marine vessels, a ’spent fuel’ forms, which has to be stored on the vessel for the remainder of the voyage. Furthermore, the spent fuel has to be regenerated (e.g. using ball-milling) upon arrival at the destination port to achieve circularity. From an operational perspective both the fuel and the spent fuel have to be stored for at least the duration of one vessel trip. To design the required storage and handling equipment to realize a circular bunkering process, the mechanical characteristics of both the fuel and the spent fuel e.g. particle size distribution, internal friction, cohesion, wall-friction, and flowability are required. However, little is known about these mechanical characteristics.
Towards hydrogen-fueled marine vessels using Solid Hydrogen Carriers
