Thermodynamic Analysis of Aqueous Phase Reforming of Sorbitol

Demands for energy in this world have increased significantly, and this pressure has put together researchers all around the globe to develop a new method of recovering new hydrocarbon resources. When one is found, this technology must be able to withstand economic change and capable to perform sustainable production. Aqueous phase reforming (APR) is first introduced in 2002 by Dumesic and co-worker (Cortright, Davda, & Dumesic, 2002). Main prospect of APR process is, to produce hydrogen from water-soluble oxygenated compound such as glycerol, sugar and sugar alcohols. This APR method is very economic since it does not use volatize water (steam) in the process. Throughout this paper, thermodynamic of APR of sorbitol is analyzed in details for more understanding. The target of this analysis is to discover the best parameters (i.e. temperature, pressure) for APR process. Basically, every parameter has different effect to APR process and by altering this value, the conclusion of relationships in between parameters and thermodynamic can be achieved.
Sorbitol is one of the sugar alcohols where it is mainly used in many food industries as sweetener, laxative for bowel treatment and medical applications. This glucose alcohol can be produced by the reduction of glucose, and mainly found in fruits (Teo, et al., 2006). On the other hand, sorbitol has high potential to be produced in a big amount in Malaysia due to large tapioca industries where the starch is converted into glucose and then sorbitol.