• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.493-499
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• 2010

Steam reforming (SR) of glycerol, a main by-product of manufacturing process of bio-diesel, for the production of hydrogen was investigated over the Ni-based catalysts. The Ni-based catalysts were prepared by an impregnation method, and characterized by $N_2$ physisorption, CO chemisorption, XRD and TEM techniques. It was found that the Ni/${\gamma}-Al_2O_3$ catalyst showed higher conversion and catalytic stability for the carbon formation than the other catalysts in the steam reforming of glycerol under the tested conditions. The results suggest that the steam reforming of glycerol over modified Ni/${\gamma}-Al_2O_3$ catalyst minimized carbon formation can be applied in hydrogen station for fuel-cell powered vehicles and fuel processor for stationary and portable fuel cells.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.727-735
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• 2014

For improved sustainability of the biorefinery industry, biorefinery-byproduct glycerol is being investigated as an alternate source for hydrogen production. This research designs and optimizes a hydrogen-production process for small hydrogen stations using steam reforming of purified glycerol as the main reaction, replacing existing processes relying on steam methane reforming. Modeling, simulation and optimization using a commercial process simulator are performed for the proposed hydrogen production process from glycerol. The mixture of glycerol and steam are used for making syngas in the reforming process. Then hydrogen are produced from carbon monoxide and steam through the water-gas shift reaction. Finally, hydrogen is separated from carbon dioxide using PSA. This study shows higher yield than former U.S. DOE and Linde studies. Economic evaluations are performed for optimal planning of constructing domestic hydrogen energy infrastructure based on the proposed glycerol-based hydrogen station.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.209-214
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• 2018

In this paper, the techno-economic analysis of glycerol steam reforming for $H_2$ production capacity of $300m^3\;h^{-1}$ was carried out. The process of glycerol steam reforming was constructed by using Aspen $HYSYS^{(R)}$, a commercial process simulator, and parametric studies for the effect of the operating temperature on $H_2$ production was performed. Moreover, the economic analysis was conducted through an itemized cost estimation, sensitivity analysis (SA) and cash flow diagram (CFD), and the unit $H_2$ production cost was 5.10 $ ${kgH_2}^{-1}$ through the itemized cost estimation of glycerol steam reforming for $H_2$ production capacity of $300m^3\;h^{-1}$. SA was employed to identify key economic factors and various economic indicators such as net present value (NPV), discounted payback period (DPBP), and present value ratio (PVR) were found according to $H_2$ selling price using CFD.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.589-593
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• 2018

In this paper, an economic evaluation with the uncertainty analysis using a Monte-Carlo simulation method was performed for the glycerol steam reforming to produce $H_2$ at a capacity of $300m^3h^{-1}$. Fluctuations in a unit $H_2$ production cost were identified based on the variation of key economic factors at ${\pm}10-{\pm}40%$ and the probability of 30.9% was obtained for a previously reported unit $H_2$ production cost of 5.10 $ $kgH{_2}^{-1}$. In addition, fluctuations in the B/C ratio were obtained by varying the fixed capital investment (${\pm}20%$), cost of manufacturing (${\pm}20%$), revenue (${\pm}20%$), and discount rate (2-10%) and the probability ranging from 17 to 55% was observed to meet a minimum B/C ratio of 1 for the economic feasibility of the glycerol steam reforming to produce $H_2$.

• Clean Technology
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.68-75
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• 2015

In this study, we investigated the structure and properties of a highly heat conductive metal-ceramic core-shell CoAl₂O₄@Al micro-composite for heterogeneous catalysts support. The CoAl₂O₄@Al was prepared by hydrothermal surface oxidation of Al metal powder, which resulted in the structure with a high heat conductive Al metal core encapsulated by a high surface area CoAl₂O₄ shell. For comparison, CoAl₂O₄ was also prepared by co-precipitation method and also utilized for a catalyst support. Rh catalysts supported on CoAl₂O₄@Al and CoAl₂O₄ were prepared by incipient wetness impregnation and characterized by N₂ adsorption, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), CO chemisorption, and temperature-programmed reduction (TPR). The properties of catalysts were investigated for glycerol steam reforming reaction for hydrogen production at 550 ℃. Rh/CoAl₂O₄@Al exhibited about 2.8 times higher glycerol conversion turnover frequency (TOF) than Rh/CoAl₂O₄ due to facilitated heat transport through the core-shell structure. The CoAl₂O₄@Al and CoAl₂O₄ also showed some catalytic activities due to a partial reduction of Co on the support, and a higher catalytic activity was also found on the CoAl₂O₄@Al core-shell than CoAl₂O₄. These catalysts, however, displayed deactivation on the reaction stream due to carbon deposition on the catalysts surface.