We have been developing cost-effective catalysts for hydrogen production via alkaline hydrothermal treatment of biomass. In particular, one-dimensional materials such as nanofibers have been investigated to support catalytic metal nanoparticles to maintain the high surface area to volume ratio while inhibiting aggregation. When the nanostructured nanofiber catalysts were applied to the alkaline hydrolysis of glucose, our results reveal that tuning the nanocatalyst location to the surface of the nanofiber greatly increases the conversion and reduces the loading requirements, and placing the catalyst selectively into the sheath layer also delayed the onset of side reactions, and thus the maximum reaction temperature for pure hydrogen production can be elevated significantly, which in turn increases the production rate of pure hydrogen. Since the developed biorefining technology would require a simple furnace, catalyst and hydrogen storage/fuel cell, it can be an ideal, rural or farm-scale system of local energy production.

Hydrogen production via alkaline hydrothermal treatment of biomass: Catalyst development

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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