Hydrogen production by sorption-enhanced steam reforming of glycerol

Catalytic steam reforming of glycerol for H2 production has been evaluated experimentally in a continuous flow fixed-bed reactor. The experiments were carried out under atmospheric pressure within a temperature range of 400–700 °C. A commercial Ni-based catalyst and a dolomite sorbent were used for the steam reforming reactions and in situ CO2 removal. The product gases were measured by on-line gas analysers. The results show that H2 productivity is greatly increased with increasing temperature and the formation of methane by-product becomes negligible above 500 °C. The results suggest an optimal temperature of ∼500 °C for the glycerol steam reforming with in situ CO2 removal using calcined dolomite as the sorbent, at which the CO2 breakthrough time is longest and the H2 purity is highest. The shrinking core model and the 1D-diffusion model describe well the CO2 removal under the conditions of this work.