Synergistic effect of sodium borohydride (NaBH4) mixed with waste aluminum in hydrolytic system were investigated to improve the hydrogen generation (HG) efficiency. The alkaline aqueous originated from NaBH4 hydrolysis impels the passive aluminum hydroxide film of Al surface to be dissolved, thus, mutual effect of HG amount increasing by 88% and 50% for Al powder and waste Al can, respectively. To add acid catalyst in the mutual mixture system prompts to significantly accelerate HG rate from 100 ml/ming to 400 ml/ming but raising temperature is not obviously found. It is speculated that exothermic effect dominates the NaBH4 hydrolytic reaction and eliminates the temperature effect. In this study, the mutual hydrolyzed reaction of NaBH4 and waste Al provides ecofriendly environment, low cost and enables to achieve higher HG rate and further uses for portable/mobile fields. (C) 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC.