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by h0l0cube 1429 days ago
> Anyone know what the catch is here?

Scaling up could be limited by the availability of Boron:

> Boron is synthesized entirely by cosmic ray spallation and supernovae and not by stellar nucleosynthesis, so it is a low-abundance element in the Solar System and in the Earth's crust.[12] It constitutes about 0.001 percent by weight of Earth's crust.[13]

> Global proven boron mineral mining reserves exceed one billion metric tonnes, against a yearly production of about four million tonnes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boron

2 comments

It uses boron nitride which seems relatively easily available in large-ish quantities: https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/nano-boron-nitride-po...
Once the boron nitride powder is heated to release the captured hydrogen, can it be reused to capture again?
Yes.

Of note:

> All up, the process consumes 76.8 KJ/s to store and separate 1000L of gases, which means it uses at least 90 per cent less than the current gas separation process commonly used in the petroluem industry.

> Even more significantly, once the gas is absorbed into the powder it gas can be transported safely and easily. When the gas is needed, the powder can be simply heated in a vacuum to release the gas unchanged.

Sadly, this doesn't put much of a dent in the larger issues around blue hydrogen.