Novel Approach to Hydrogen Production with Suppressed COx Generation from a Model Biomass Feedstock

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• 作者：Thomas E. Ferguson ; Youngjune Park ; Camille Petit ; Ah-Hyung Alissa Park
• 刊名：Energy & Fuels
• 出版年：2012
• 出版时间：July 19, 2012
• 年：2012
• 卷：26
• 期：7
• 页码：4486-4496
• 全文大小：431K
• 年卷期：v.26,no.7(July 19, 2012)
• ISSN：1520-5029

文摘

The alkaline thermal treatment of biomass has recently been proposed as a novel method for producing high purity H₂ with suppressed CO_x formation under moderate reaction conditions (i.e., 523 K and ambient pressure). This technology has a great potential for sustainable bioenergy production because it can handle a wide range of feedstocks including biomass and biogenic wastes with high water content. Unfortunately, due to the complexity of the reactions involved, the alkaline thermal treatment of biomass is still poorly understood. In this study, using a model biomass system of glucose, a series of noncatalytic kinetic and mechanistic studies was performed to investigate the effects of reaction temperature and reactant ratios in terms of H₂ conversion, purity, and formation rates of H₂ as well as gaseous products such as CH₄, CO, and CO₂. The CO concentration is one of the important factors for the utilization of the product gas because CO is generally poisonous to catalytic systems such as those found in proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells. Thus, high CO concentration would require additional gas cleanup processes. This study found that NaOH does play an important role in suppressing CO and CO₂ formation while facilitating H₂ production and promoting CH₄ formation. The noncatalytic alkaline thermal treatment of glucose resulted in a maximum H₂ conversion of about 27% at 523 K with a stoichiometric mixture of NaOH and glucose. While the H₂ conversion was limited in the absence of catalyst, the moderate reaction conditions, low CO_x concentration, and solid鈥搒olid reaction scheme give advantages over conventional biomass conversion technologies. The solids analysis confirmed the presence of Na₂CO₃ in the solid product, indicating the inherent carbon management potential of the alkaline thermal treatment process.