PRODUCTION OF SYNGAS VIA GLYCEROL BIOMASS USING LIMESTONE BASED CATALYST

The mass production of biodiesel nowadays has produced surplus of glycerol as glycerol is a by-product of biodiesel processing. This would decrease the price market of glycerol as the conventional applications and current market cannot cope with this rate of production. As Malaysia is among the top producer of glycerol, it will cause some negative effects on the country. The main objective of this project is to investigate the potential of syngas production via glycerol using limestone based catalyst utilizing dry reforming technique. In the beginning, the limestone based catalyst is characterized by using TGA, TEM and BET analysis to determine the calcination temperatures, composition, arrangement and surface area size. After limestone characterization, the catalyst is prepared using impregnation of limestone support with metal precursor solution, followed by drying and calcination. The catalysts would be characterized again using TEM and BET method to determine the composition and specific size range of catalyst particle in order to compare the differences before and after catalyst preparation. Finally, the reaction will be carried out in a fixed bed reactor loading of catalyst in the middle with glycerol and CO2 as the reactants input with the flow rate of 3mL/min and 100mL/min, respectively in an operating temperature of 500oC under various operating pressure. This project is proven to be successful by the fact that all of the three CaCO3 and CaO based catalysts have the capability to transform glycerol into syngas via dry reforming reaction with H2 concentration ranges from 40 to 87% of molar concentration while CO concentration has the range of 0.36 to 7%. Moreover, it is observed that the H2/CO ratio yields are directly proportional to the operating pressure of the reactor. These results have shown some potential promises which would in turn create a big opportunity for Malaysia to convert glycerol into high value product syngas as limestone and glycerol are abundance in the country. Further researches and projects would be recommended to enhance the conversion and selectivity as well as developing new method and techniques such as steam reforming and pyrolysis to carry out the process in bigger scales.