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The
source of the sodium borohydride that powered our fuel-cell test boat
was borax, a substance commonly found in both the Earth’s crust and
oceans. Presently, fossil fuel-powered manufacturing facilities create
sodium borohydride from raw borax in small batches for bleaching paper
in industrial papermaking operations—using the stuff to power fuel
cells is a radically new application. Hence, production is currently low,
and the price is high. Reportedly, the mixture of sodium borohydride and
water (see photo above) we filled our Herreshoff’s 45-gallon fuel
tank with cost approximately $50 per gallon—way more than we pay
for gasoline at the pumps these days. However, Millennium Cell and U.S.
Borax are working on clean, large-scale production methods they hope will
significantly lower the price of sodium borohydride and replace fossil-fuel
manufacturing methods with renewable energy resources like solar and hydropower.
—B.P.
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