(542e) Kinetic Study of Two-Phase Reforming of Aqueous Fraction of Bio-Oil Using Ru Supported On Al2O3
AIChE Annual Meeting
2013
2013 AIChE Annual Meeting
Topical Conference: Advanced Fossil Energy Utilization
Fuel Processing for Hydrogen Production IV
Wednesday, November 6, 2013 - 4:40pm to 5:00pm
Kinetic Study of Two-Phase Reforming of Aqueous fraction of Bio-oil using Ru supported on Al2O3
Shyamsundar Ayalur Chattanathan, Sushil Adhikari, Vaishnavi Srinivasan, and Nourredine Abdoulmoumine
Department of Biosystems Engineering, Auburn University, AL
Abstract
Increase in energy demands with population growth has resulted in increased focus on renewable sources of energy. One option is to produce hydrogen from renewable resources such as bio-oil. The objective of this study is to determine kinetics of aqueous fraction of bio-oil in two-phase reforming for hydrogen production. Reforming of bio-oil was carried out in a batch-scale reactor at three different temperatures (180, 230, and 280°C) under autogenous pressure. The effects of temperature and bio-oil concentration (5, 10 and 15 vol. % in water) on exit gas composition and yield were investigated with and without catalysts. The highest hydrogen yield was obtained at 280°C for all bio-oil concentrations. It was observed that the H2 yield and carbon conversion improved with the addition of Ru/Al2O3 catalyst. For example, at 280°C 17% of the carbon was converted into gas phase in the presence of catalyst as compared to 6% without catalyst. All the experiments for kinetics study were conducted at 15% aqueous bio-oil concentration and residence time of 4 h. The activation energy for the reaction was found to be 66 kJ/mol (without catalyst) which decreased to 56 kJ/mol in the presence of catalyst. Although H2 selectivity was higher with catalytic reforming, there was no significant difference with temperature change. For non-catalytic reforming, it increased with increase in temperature. In addition, H2 selectivity in catalytic reforming increased by 78%, 58%, and 22% at temperatures 180, 230 and 280ºC, respectively implying that catalyst was effective at lower temperatures.
Keywords: Two-phase phase reforming, Bio-oil, Hydrogen selectivity and Carbon conversion.