Abstract
Glycerol is one of the by-products of transesterification of fatty acids to produce bio-diesel. Increased production of bio-diesel would lead to increased production of glycerol in Canadian market. Therefore, the production of hydrogen, syn gas and medium heating value gas is highly desirable to improve the economics of bio-diesel production process. In this study, steam gasification of pure and crude glycerol was carried out in a fixed-bed reactor at the liquid hourly space velocity (LHSV) and temperature of 0.77 h−1 and 800 °C, respectively. In this process, the effects of different packing materials such as quartz particle and silicon carbide were studied. Catalytic steam gasification was performed in the presence of commercial Ni/Al2O3 catalyst in the range of steam to glycerol weight ratio of 0:100–50:50 to produce hydrogen or syngas when LHSV was maintained constant at 5.4 h−1. Pure glycerol was completely converted to gas containing 92 mol% syngas (molar ratio of H2/CO ≈ 1.94) and the calorific value of 13 MJ/m3 at 50:50 weight ratio of steam to glycerol. Hydrogen yield was increased by 15 mol% via the steam gasification process when compared to pyrolysis process. The presence of catalyst increased further the production of hydrogen and total gas in case of both pure and crude glycerol indicating their strong potential of making hydrogen or syngas. Maximum hydrogen, total gas and syn gas production of 68.4 mol%, 2.6 L/g of glycerol and 89.5 mol% were obtained from glycerol using Ni/Al2O3 catalyst at temperature and steam to glycerol ratio of 800 °C and 25:75, respectively.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
National Biodiesel Board (2004) http://biodiesel.org/pdf_files/emissions.pdf. Accessed on August 9, 2004
Ma F, Hanna MA (1999) Bio Tech 70:1
Boocock DGB, Konar SK, Mao V, Sidi V (1996) Biomass Bioenergy 11:43
Dalai AK, Bakhshi NN, Lang X, Reaney MJ, Hertz PB, Munson J (2000) Annual Interim Report for Canodev Research Inc. April, 2000
Demirbas A (2002) Ener Sour 24:835
Filliers R, Mlayah BB, Delmas M (1995) JAOCS 72(4):427
Shah S, Sharma S, Gupta MN (2004) Energy Fuels 18:154
Sridharan R, Mathai IM (1974) J Sci Ind Res 33:78
Lang X, Dalai AK, Bakhshi NN, Reaney MJ, Hertz MJ (2001) Bioresource Tech 80:53
Smith C (2004) www.straight.com. Accessed on September 9, 2004
Prakash CB (1998) Environment Canada March 25
Tyson KS (2003) Montana Biodiesel Workshop, October 8
Chaudhari ST, Bhakshi NN (2002) Report to bioenergy development program renewable energy branch, energy, mines and resources Canada, Ottawa, Canada, February, p 396
Cortright RD, Davda RD, Dumesic JA (2002) Nature 418:964
Rapagna S, Jand N, Foscolo UP (1998) Int J Hydrogen Energy 23:551
Valliyappan T (2004) M.Sc. Thesis, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon
Chaudhari ST, Bej SK, Bakhshi NN, Dalai AK (2001) Energy Fuels 15:736
Steynberg AP, Nel HG (2003) Fuel 83:765
Claude S (1999) Lipid 101:101
Stein YS, Antal MJ, Jones M (1983) J Anal Appl Pyrolysis 4:283
Buhler W, Dinjus E, Ederer E, Kruse A, Mas C (2002) J Super Fluids 22:37
Xu X, Matsumura Y, Stenberg J, Antal MJ (1996) Ind Eng Chem Res 35:2522
Huber GW, Shabaker JW, Dumesic JA (2003) Science 30:2075
Hirai T, Ikenaga N, Miyake T, Suzuki T (2005) Energy Fuel 19:1761
Valliyappan T, Bakhshi NN, Dalai AK (2005) Communicated with Bio-resource Technology
Ferdous D, Dalai AK, Bej SK, Thring RW (2001) Can J Chem Eng 79:913
Gadhe JB, Gupta B (2005) Ind Eng Chem Res 44:4577
Ross JRH, Steel MCF, Zeini-Isfahani A (1978) J Catal 52:280
Wang D, Czernik S, Montane D, Mann M, Chornet E (1997) Ind Eng Chem Res 36:1507
Hüttinger KJ, Minges R (1986) Fuel 65(8):1122
Acknowledgments
The authors express their gratitude to the Saskatchewan Canola Development Commission, BIOCAP, Natural Resources Canada and NSERC for their financial support.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Valliyappan, T., Ferdous, D., Bakhshi, N.N. et al. Production of Hydrogen and Syngas via Steam Gasification of Glycerol in a Fixed-Bed Reactor. Top Catal 49, 59–67 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11244-008-9062-7
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11244-008-9062-7