Hydrogen production by sorption-enhanced steam reforming of glycerol

Catalytic steam reforming of glycerol for H-2 production has been evaluated experimentally in a continuous flow fixed-bed reactor. The experiments were carried out under atmospheric pressure within a temperature range of 400-700 degrees C. A commercial Ni-based catalyst and a dolomite sorbent were used for the steam reforming reactions and in situ CO2 removal. The product gases were measured by on-line gas analysers. The results show that H-2 productivity is greatly increased with increasing temperature and the formation of methane by-product becomes negligible above 500 degrees C. The results suggest an optimal temperature of similar to 500 degrees C for the glycerol steam reforming with in situ CO2 removal using calcined dolomite as the sorbent, at which the CO2 breakthrough time is longest and the H-2 purity is highest. The shrinking core model and the 1D-diffusion model describe well the CO2 removal under the conditions of this work. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.