Autothermal steam reforming of glycerol for hydrogen production over packed-bed and Pd/Ag alloy membrane reactors

In this study, glycerol, with its high H/C ratio feature, was steam reformed with oxygen to produce hydrogen in packed-bed and Pd/Ag membrane reactors. The addition of oxygen, which causes the partial oxidation, was to achieve thermal neutral for the energy saving purposes. Ni/CeO2/Al2O3 catalyst was used to catalyze the reforming reaction at varying temperature, WHSV, WGMR and O-2/C3H8O3 ratios. In the packed-bed runs, the glycerol conversion achieved to 99.56% at temperature of 973 K, WHSV of 5 h(-1), WGMR of 9 and O-2/C3H8O3 of 0.15. Moreover, the best hydrogen yield was 85.26% at conditions of 773 K, WHSV of 5 h(-1), WGMR of 9 and O-2/C3H8O3 of 0.15. Besides, the Pd/Ag alloy membrane was also employed for comparative purposes. In the Pd/Ag membrane reactor runs, the results shows that glycerol conversion increased with increasing pressure, but the hydrogen yield also declined. The thermal dynamic simulation is also done with MATLAB software. Copyright (C) 2013, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.