Solar-Powered Hydrogen Production from Sodium Borohydride Hydrolysis Using Sugarcane Bagasse (<i>Saccharum officinarum</i>) as a Green Catalyst

Research into more sustainable and metal-free hydrogen production has driven the quest to replace fossil fuels with clean energy. A hydrogen generation system based on sodium borohydride hydrolysis (NaBH4) was developed using catalysts derived from residual biomass, specifically sugarcane bagasse. The successful synthesis of Modified Sugarcane Bagasse (MOB) catalysts with high stability and catalytic activity using phosphoric acid (H3PO4) was confirmed through characterization techniques, including FTIR, XRD, XRF, TGA, SEM, and GC, which verified positive structural modifications. The Taguchi method was applied to optimize the process and reduce the number of experiments. The factors that statistically contributed the most within the model’s confidence range were time (35 min), temperature (60 °C), NaBH4 (750 mg), and MOB (300 mg), with NaBH4 standing out at 58.87% and the MOB catalyst contributing 27.03% to hydrogen production. Additionally, integrating with a photovoltaic solar energy network demonstrated energy viability, with a total consumption of 136 kWh to produce 1000 mL of H2. The results show that MOB exhibits superior catalytic performance for NaBH4 hydrolysis, with excellent economic feasibility. This catalyst is highly promising for practical applications in NaBH4 hydrolysis.