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Hydrogen-enhanced catalytic hydrothermal gasification of biomass

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An Erratum to this article was published on 24 April 2017

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Abstract

The impact of hydrogen co-feeding on the catalytic hydrothermal gasification of wet biomass was explored in a continuous test rig using a feed of 10 wt% glycerol in water and a fixed bed of a carbon-supported ruthenium catalyst. The reactor was operated at a nominal temperature of 400 °C and at pressures of 26–28 MPa. Variation of the hydrogen-to-glycerol ratio as well as of the total pressure showed clearly the methanation reaction to be promoted at the expense of carbon dioxide and hydrogen formation. This is explained by a higher hydrogen surface coverage and consecutively higher rates for hydrogenation of surface-bound carbon. An increase in peak temperature of ca. 75 K occurred in the catalytic fixed-bed when co-feeding hydrogen. The measured product gas composition was close to the thermodynamic equilibrium calculated at the outlet temperature of the reactor. A maximum methane concentration of 86 vol% in the raw gas was obtained at 28 MPa with a stoichiometric addition of hydrogen. Full catalytic activity was maintained during and after the hydrogen co-feeding experiments, verified by comparing the performance of a run with a 10 wt% glycerol in water feed after co-feeding hydrogen, for which the product distribution was very close to the experiments before hydrogen co-feeding.

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  • 24 April 2017

    An erratum to this article has been published.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to P. Hottinger, L. Bäni, and M. Rüttimann for technical support. Financial support in the frame of the Competence Center Energy and Mobility (CCEM project RENERG2/Future Mobility), by the Energy System Integration (ESI) Platform and the Swiss Competence Center for Energy Research (SCCER BIOSWEET), is gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Division Energy and Environment, Laboratory for Bioenergy and Catalysis, Paul Scherrer Institute, 5232, Villigen PSI, Switzerland

    J. Reimer, S. Müller, E. De Boni & F. Vogel

  2. Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz, Hochschule für Technik, Institut für Biomasse und Ressourceneffizienz, 5210, Windisch, Switzerland

    F. Vogel

Authors
  1. J. Reimer
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  2. S. Müller
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  3. E. De Boni
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  4. F. Vogel
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to S. Müller.

Additional information

The original version of this article was revised: ESM, Fig. 7, Eqs. 2, 4, and 8 have been corrected.

An erratum to this article is available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-017-0260-z.

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Reimer, J., Müller, S., De Boni, E. et al. Hydrogen-enhanced catalytic hydrothermal gasification of biomass. Biomass Conv. Bioref. 7, 511–519 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-017-0253-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-017-0253-y

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