Unmixed Steam Reforming of Liquid Fuels From Biomass and Waste for Hydrogen Production
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Leeds
Department Name: Energy Resources Research Unit
Abstract
Unmixed steam reforming is a promising alternative process of hydrogen production. It relies on the cyclic oxidation of a bed of nickel-based material and on the simultaneous regeneration of a CO2-sorbent under airflow to provide the heat necessary for the steam reforming reaction. The latter occurs subsequently under a fuel/steam flow while the airflow is interrupted. The effluent gas of the fuel/steam step is much higher in hydrogen than the single reactor equivalent conventional process, and the oxidised catalyst is regenerated by reduction from exposure to the fuel. Because the carbon produced during the steam reforming step is subsequently burned under the airflow, the process is not sensitive to the gradual loss of conversion efficiency exhibited by the conventional process. Furthermore, in the unmixed steam reforming process, sulphur in the fuel is claimed to also undergo oxidation under the airflow rather than irreversibly poisoning the reforming catalyst. This process most importantly claimed to be economical at small scale, unlike the conventional process, and could thus be used in distributed power generation. These advantages open up opportunities for this novel process to apply to a whole range of fuels with coking tendencies and/or sulphur content, such as the combustible liquid mixtures derived from biomass or specific industrial / transportation waste. When using a suitable CO2-sorbent in the reformer, the dry hydrogen content in the reformate gas reaches above 80% (90+% when using on methane fuel). In this case, most of the produced CO2 and the N2 from the airflow effluent leave the reactor separately to the H2-rich reformate gas, and can potentially be easily filtered and stored. In the now completed GR/R50677/01 project, we showed the sequence via which the various reactions involved in the cycle proceeded, and we found clear evidence of the insensitivity of the process to coking. We concluded that certain developments would improve on the original process. These are listed in the objectives.
People |
ORCID iD |
Valerie Dupont (Principal Investigator) | |
Jenny Jones (Co-Investigator) |
Publications
Amanda Lea-Langton (Author)
(2010)
Biomass pyrolysis oils for hydrogen-rich syngas production
Dupont V
(2008)
Production of hydrogen by unmixed steam reforming of methane
in Chemical Engineering Science
Elisabeth H Knight (Author)
(2008)
Carbon laydown during steam methane reforming start up conditions.
Giannakeas N
(2012)
Hydrogen from scrap tyre oil via steam reforming and chemical looping in a packed bed reactor
in Applied Catalysis B: Environmental
Lea-Langton A
(2010)
Waste Lubricating Oil as a Source of Hydrogen Fuel using Chemical Looping Steam Reforming
in SAE International Journal of Fuels and Lubricants
Lea-Langton A
(2012)
Biomass pyrolysis oils for hydrogen production using chemical looping reforming
in International Journal of Hydrogen Energy
Pimenidou P
(2010)
Chemical looping reforming of waste cooking oil in packed bed reactor.
in Bioresource technology
Pimenidou P
(2010)
High purity H2 by sorption-enhanced chemical looping reforming of waste cooking oil in a packed bed reactor
in Bioresource Technology
Pimenidou P
(2012)
Characterisation of palm empty fruit bunch (PEFB) and pinewood bio-oils and kinetics of their thermal degradation.
in Bioresource technology
Rollinson A
(2011)
Urea as a hydrogen carrier: a perspective on its potential for safe, sustainable and long-term energy supply
in Energy & Environmental Science
Description | in this project we investigated whether, firstly, the process of catalytic steam reforming could successfully be applied to liquid feedstocks derived from agricultural and industrial wastes in order to produce hydrogen gas sustainably, and, secondly, whether the process could be intensified using the two novel approaches of chemical looping and in situ CO2 capture to generate high purity hydrogen from a single reactor. We demonstrated via experiments that both the conventional and the intensified processes were feasible using a number of feedstocks with varied characteristics, although deactivation of the catalysts occurred in the one case of feedstock with high sulphur content (pyrolysis oil from waste tyres). Hydrogen with high yield and high purity was obtained with sorption enhanced chemical looping steam reforming of biomass pyrolysis oils. |
Exploitation Route | positive outcome of this feasibility project warrants further work on process design, which will require modelling inputs obtained from further targeted experiments, as well as model build up and optimisation, so that a pilot plant may be designed as a first stage to future take up of the technology in the world. |
Sectors | Agriculture Food and Drink Chemicals Energy Manufacturing including Industrial Biotechology |
Description | Johnson Matthey Plc |
Organisation | Johnson Matthey |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
Start Year | 2007 |
Description | Tyrolysis Co Ltd |
Organisation | Tyrolysis Co Ltd |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
Start Year | 2007 |