Sorption-enhanced steam reforming of ethanol for hydrogen production.

ROGER AVENDAÑO; MARIA L DIEUZEIDE; ROBERTO TEJEDA; NORMA AMADEO

Congreso; Hypothesis XVI; 2021

Recently, it has been proposed H2 as a power vector, to replace fossil fuels such as oil, coke, and natural gas, due to their high environmental impact. One way to use H2 as a power source is in fuel cells, which requires high purity H2 to be effective [1]. Among main industrial processes for H2 synthesis the steam reforming of alcohols obtained from biomass is a sustainable alternative. Nevertheless, the H2 produced using this process contains significant amounts of CO, which poisons the anode at the PEM fuel cell and therefore it is necessary to be removed. To remove CO2 in gaseous product containing CH4, CO, CO2 and H2, successive operational units are used to decrease CO mainly. These units are based in chemical reactions as Water Gas Shift Reaction (WGSR) and Preferential Oxidation of CO (COPROX). The CO2 sorption shifts the equilibrium of the WGS reaction towards products, promoting a higher consumption of CO and therefore a lower CO content in the outlet stream of the reformer.