Glycerin is an inexpensive and abundantly available feedstock that may be beneficially utilized for hydrogen production in advanced energy applications. One method that can be adopted to produce hydrogen from glycerin is using supercritical water as a reaction medium. The conversion process is noncatalytic and can tolerate a wide range of impurities. In order to maximize the hydrogen yield as well as the syngas conversion efficiency of this process, a fundamental understanding of the reaction pathways of glycerin conversion in supercritical water is essential. A mechanistic pathway for the decomposition of glycerin was hypothesized and examined. Other reactions examined include reformation, methanation, water gas shift conversion, and pyrolysis. An experimental kinetic study was performed in order to evaluate the validity of the decomposition reaction pathway of glycerin conversion. Experiments were conducted at diverse temperatures, flowrates, water-to-glycerin ratios, and other reactor conditions to gain a comprehensive understanding of glycerin conversion.

Reaction pathways of glycerin-to-syngas conversion in supercritical water

243rd National Meeting (2012)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.