Hydrogen Production from Supercritical Water Gasification of Model Compounds of Crude Glycerol from Biodiesel Industries

Kapil Khandelwal, Philip Boahene, Sonil Nanda and Ajay K. Dalai ()
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Kapil Khandelwal: Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A9, Canada
Philip Boahene: Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A9, Canada
Sonil Nanda: Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A9, Canada
Ajay K. Dalai: Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A9, Canada

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 9, 1-19

Abstract: Biodiesel production through transesterification results in a large quantity of crude glycerol as a byproduct, the utilization of which is technically and economically challenging. Because of the ability to efficiently process wet feedstocks, supercritical water gasification (SCWG) is utilized in this study to convert crude glycerol into hydrogen-rich syngas. A significant challenge addressed through this study is the decomposition routes of different heterogeneous components of crude glycerol during SCWG. Pure glycerol, methanol and oleic acid were investigated for SCWG as the model compounds of crude glycerol. SCWG of model compounds at temperature, pressure, feedstock concentration and reaction time of 500 °C, 23–25 MPa, 10 wt% and 1 h, respectively, revealed methanol to exhibit the highest H 2 yield of 7.7 mmol/g, followed by pure glycerol (4.4 mmol/g) and oleic acid (1.1 mmol/g). The effects of feedstock concentration from 30 wt% to 10 wt% increased H 2 yield from all model compounds. Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to develop a response curve to visualize the interactive behavior and develop model equations for the prediction of H 2 -rich gas yields as a function of the composition of model compounds in the crude glycerol mixture. Predictive models showed a good agreement with experimental results, demonstrating high accuracy and robustness of the model. These findings demonstrated a strong potential of crude glycerol for SCWG to generate H 2 -rich syngas.

Keywords: design of experiments; glycerol; hydrogen; response surface methodology; supercritical water gasification (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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