Journals Proceedings

Abstract

Hydrogen can be produced using several reforming methods from the byproduct of biodiesel which is glycerol. In this investigation, thermodynamic study for glycerol dry reforming to hydrogen at low pressure and different CO2 to glycerol ratio (CGR) was carried out. Dry reforming of glycerol involves series of reactions and depends on several process variables such as pressure, temperature and ratio feed of the reactants. As for that, a thermodynamic equilibrium analysis has been performed by using direct minimization Gibbs energy method via the utilization of Matlab software. The process parameters considered in this study are temperature (573K-1273K), pressure (1, 0.5, 0.1, 0.05 and 0.01 atm) and CGR (1:1, 3:1, 6:1, 1:3 and 6:1). The result inferred that optimum conditions for hydrogen production can be attained when temperature = 1273K (higher), CGR = 1:6 (lower), pressure 0.01 atm (lower). CO showed almost similar trend to hydrogen formation, whereas CO2 and H2O showed different trend due to the effects of complex reaction network within the glycerol dry reforming process. The region for carbon suppression was also identified in order to avoid coking that could poison any possible catalyst involvement.