HYDROGEN PRODUCTION BY AUTOTHERMAL REFORMING OF BIOGAS OVER A MONOLITHIC CATALYST

From the standpoint of the environmental load, it is important to develop the hydrogen production system from methane produced by the fermentation of biomass such as food waste or wood waste. Compared with conventional catalysts such as pellet or Raschig ring type catalysts, monolithic catalyst is consider to be suitable for this process, especially for small-scale applications because it has the advantages such as high geometric surface area and the low pressure drop. We applied monolithic catalyst to autothermal reforming (ATR) of biogas. We examined at the biogasification bench-scale plant in Kyoto to obtain the optimum ratios of Steam/CH4 (S/C) and O-2/CH4 (O-2/C). As a result, it was found that the highest hydrogen concentration was attained at O-2/C=0.5 and S/C of 1.5-2.5. Moreover, we confirmed that the consistent performance was obtained under suitable conditions for the feed amount of steam and oxygen for over 800 hours.