Cheese industry wastewater valorization as catalytic system for hydrogen generation through amino borane derivatives

The development of sustainable hydrogen generation technologies remains a key pillar in the transition toward a sustainable society. Hydrogen storage represents one of the most intriguing challenges due to the necessity of production of safe, cheap and solid solution for small and medium applications. Chemical hydrogen carriers are very promising and ammonia borane represent a solid choice due to its high hydrogen content up to 19.6 wt% and easily hydrogen release under hydrolytic conditions. Nevertheless, ammonia borane hydrolysis required fresh water and use of catalysts increasing the environmental impact of the process. In this work, we reported the use of a complex wastewater from cheese industry, known as Scotta, rich in small organic acids as catalytic system for hydrogen generation from ammonia borane and its methylated derivatives. Scotta system showed complete hydrogen release from ammonia borane after 300 and 180 s at 40 and 50 °C respectively. Similarly, di- and thrimethylated derivatives reached a conversion of 93.3 and 86.8% after 600s at 50 °C showing also a decrement of kinetic constant rate from 9 up to 40%. Furthermore, we evaluated the environmental impact of replacing fresh reagent with Scotta through life cycle assessment methodologies, proving the viability of this solution with a global warning output decrement of up 10 %. • Complete hydrogen release from ammonia borane in 180 s at 50 °C using scotta. • Scotta enhances hydrolysis kinetics of ammonia borane and methylated derivatives. • LCA confirms environmental benefits of replacing fresh water and reagents with scotta