INVESTIGADORES
AMADEO Norma Elvira
artículos
Título:
Thermodynamic analysis of hydrogen production by autothermal reforming of ethanol
Autor/es:
CECILIA GRASCHINSKY; PABLO GIUNTA; NORMA AMADEO; MIGUEL LABORDE
Revista:
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HYDROGEN ENERGY
Editorial:
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
Referencias:
Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2012 vol. 37 p. 10118 - 10124
ISSN:
0360-3199
Resumen:
Ethanol steam reforming (ESR) is a strong endothermic reaction and ideally it only
produces hydrogen and carbon dioxide.
Due to the high endothermicity of the process a large amount of energy must be
provided. Co-feeding oxygen or air and burning internally a portion of the alcohol at the
expense of hydrogen production is a way to supply heat and is known as autothermal
reforming of ethanol (ATR). This process combines the high efficiency in terms of hydrogen
yields of the ethanol steam reforming reaction and the exothermicity of ethanol partial
oxidation.
This work presents the thermodynamic study of the autothermic ethanol reforming
process. The effect of operational parameters on the equilibrium composition, based on
nonstoichiometric thermodynamic approach is investigated. The equilibrium compositions
of the system are found by the Gibbs free energy direct minimization. The species
considered for the study are: ethanol, hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide,
methane, water, acetaldehyde, ethylene, oxygen, nitrogen and carbon. Nitrogen is
considered because air is economically preferred rather than pure oxygen. Reaction
temperature is varied between 600 K and 1200 K, water e ethanol molar ratio between
0 and 9, and oxygen e ethanol molar ratio between 0 and 1.25.
As the amount of oxygen in the feed increased, hydrogen yield and carbon monoxide
yield decreased because of oxidation reactions. Carbon formation becomes negligible as
oxygen increased.