Experimental Studies of Gasification of Glycerol for the Production of Hydrogen

Abstract

In this study, pure glycerol and crude glycerol conversion to hydrogen gas was investigated using a fixed-bed reactor. The gasifying agent  utilised for this research is steam. The efficiency of the reaction was based on the results data of the H2 yield obtained. The reaction was  conducted using two different packing materials, which were silicon carbide and quartz. The effect of packing material was investigated.  Next, steam-to-glycerol ratios were varied in the range of 0:0, 10:90, 25:75 and 50:50 to study the influence of the ratios on the product  hydrogen gas. The effect of the catalyst and the amount of catalyst loading was investigated using a Ni/Al2O3 catalyst. The effect of temperature on the yield of product was studied in the range of 650 - 800◦C.  Product gasses H2, CO2, CO and CH4 were analysed using TCD and NDIR analysis. The highest purity of H2 was 65 mol% at the optimised condition of 25:75 steam to glycerol ratio and 800◦C.