Hydrogen production from waste aluminum at different temperatures, with LCA

The recycling of waste metallic aluminum with high chemical exergy, which consumes a large quantity of electricity in the refining process, is insufficient. In particular, the so-called dross generated during the remelting process a part of recycling requires expensive treatment, particularly when the metallic concentration is less than 20%, before it can be landfilled. The purpose of this study is to produce hydrogen from waste aluminum sources, such as dross, using an aqueous solution of sodium hydroxide in a beaker and an autoclave. During the study, the effects of temperature of the aqueous solution on the rate of hydrogen generation are to be chiefly examined. The result obtained from an XRD analysis showed that the white product that precipitated during the experiments contained aluminum hydroxide, the rate of hydrogen generation significantly increased with the concentration of sodium hydroxide and temperature of the aqueous solution, and the activation energy was 68.4 kJ mol_-1. In the autoclave experiments, hydrogen is released quickly, along with an increase in the inner pressure to a minimum of 1.0 MPa and an increase in the temperature above 473 K. The results suggested a possibility of a new cost effective process of hydrogen production from waste aluminum along with the by prodution of sodium hydroxide. The life cycle assessment (LCA) of the proposed process for producing not only 1 kg of hydrogen but also 26kg aluminum hydroxide from waste aluminum was carried out to assess the energy requirement and amount of carbon dioxide emissions. Results suggest that the energy requirement of our process is only 2% and the amount of carbon dioxide emissions is 4%, in comparison to a conventional method.