Thermodynamics of Aqueous-Phase Reforming of Glycerol for Hydrogen Production

This report basically focuses on the detailed thermodynamics analysis of aqueous-phase
reforming (APR) process. This project is aimed to study the feasibility of APR process
of glycerol for hydrogen production. In this contribution, the feasibility of hydrogen
production at low temperature and high pressure system is studied by focusing on the
thermodynamics analysis of aqueous-phase system considering both the reaction and the
phase equilibrium of the system. The thermodynamics equilibrium analysis is performed
at temperature range of 300K to 500K, pressure range of 15 bar to 50 bar, and water-toglycerol
feed ratio range of 0 to 5. There are six species that had been considered in the
study which involved glycerol, water, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, hydrogen and
methane. The considered phases involved a vapor and a liquid. Gibbs free energy
minimization method is applied in order to determine the equilibrium concentration of
the species. It was found that the APR process mainly produced methane and carbon
dioxide making it not feasible for production of hydrogen.