Recycling

Biography

Biography: Jun-Yen Uan

Abstract

Automobile industry has increased the number of components that are produced from Mg alloy. Moreover, Mg alloy products have been widely utilized in 3C (computer, communication, and consumer electronics) products. Therefore, from the manufacturing to the end of life of the Mg products, a massive amount of low-grade Mg scraps (LGMS) is expected to be produced. In this work, LGMS was recycled to be used as hydrogen generator. Molten LGMS bath at 580C in a semi-solid state was prepared. A metallic net was employed as a catalyst. A hot dipping process was developed by dipping the metallic net into the semi-solid bath to form a solidified LGMS overlayer on the net. The LGMS/metallic net was a hydrogen generator in NaCl aqueous. A new H2-on-demand system, comprising mainly aqueous NaCl and LGMS/metallic net was evaluated by measuring the electrical power by proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) (driving a motor fan and illuminating a high-power LED lamp). The galvanic couple (LGMS/Pt-Ti net and LGMS/S.S.) generated hydrogen in an NaCl solution (3.5 wt%). The mean volume of hydrogen generated in 50 min was 33.7±4.3 liters as the metallic net was platinum-coated titanium and 16.1± 7.8 liters was produced as the metallic net was stainless steel. On average, one gram of LGMS yielded approximately one liter of H2. Experimental results concerning the about metallic catalysts reveal that the platinum-coated titanium net and stainless steel net can be reused at least five times with comparable H2 yields.