Use of a Reforming Catalyst for Hydrogen Production in the Carbonization Process of Torrefied Biomass

The utilization of charcoal from woody biomass is an efficient way to reduce CO2 emissions from the metallurgical industry. The main aim of this work is to study the charcoal production process from torrefied biomass. For this purpose, torrefaction (3 °C min−1, 250 °C, 30 min) and carbonization (3 °...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: López Urionabarrenechea, Alexander, Acha Peña, Esther, Adrados López de Viñaspre, Aitziber, Solar Irazabal, Jon, Caballero Iglesias, Blanca María, De Marco Rodríguez, Isabel
Format: article
Publication Date:2020
Country:España
Institution:Universidad del País Vasco
Repository:Addi. Archivo Digital para la Docencia y la Investigación
OAI Identifier:oai:addi.ehu.eus:10810/48714
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10810/48714
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:torrefaction
pyrolysis
carbonization
reforming catalyst
hydrogen
woody biomass
Description
Summary:The utilization of charcoal from woody biomass is an efficient way to reduce CO2 emissions from the metallurgical industry. The main aim of this work is to study the charcoal production process from torrefied biomass. For this purpose, torrefaction (3 °C min−1, 250 °C, 30 min) and carbonization (3 °C min−1, 750 °C, 30 min) experiments of eucalyptus wood were carried out in a 3.5 L tank reactor. In the carbonization experiments, a thermo-catalytic treatment of the vaporized phase was also performed, with the objective of producing less condensates and H2-rich gases. The results show that the torrefaction pre-treatment does not affect the chemical properties of charcoal but significantly improves the performance of the carbonization process, where more than 50 wt% of charcoal is obtained. In addition, the thermal and thermo-catalytic treatment of the vaporized phase during the carbonization of torrefied biomass yields better results than in the case of fresh biomass. When torrefied biomass is used as raw material and the reforming catalyst is employed to treat the vapors and gases, a proportion of 71 vol% of H2 in the gases is achieved, together with very low quantities of condensates (8.0 wt%). This allows designing a carbonization process in which, in addition to charcoal, pure H2 can also be produced.