Hydrogen From Biomass - Catalytic Reforming of Pyrolysisvapors
Hydrogen From Biomass - Catalytic Reforming of Pyrolysisvapors
Hydrogen From Biomass - Catalytic Reforming of Pyrolysisvapors
Objectives
Demonstrate the production of hydrogen from biomass pyrolysis integrated with catalytic steam
reforming and prepare for scale-up of the system to greater than 500 kg H2/day by 2009.
Improve the efficiency of the system, including the reformer, and the use of appropriate catalysts to
reduce the cost to below $2.90/kg H2 by 2009.
Demonstrate the use of a variety of feedstocks so that significant quantities of hydrogen can be made
from biomass.
Technical Barriers
This project addresses the following technical barriers from the Hydrogen Production section of the
Hydrogen, Fuel Cells and Infrastructure Technologies Program Multi-Year R,D&D Plan:
Approach
Support DOE funded partners to demonstrate the integrated pyrolysis/reforming process using
agricultural residues (peanut shells) as feedstock; document mass balance and catalyst performance in
a long-duration test.
Validate the yields and throughputs obtained in the bench-scale system so that information can be used
for technoeconomic analysis of the process and for the design of the future scale-up of the process,
which will begin in FY 2004 at a scale of 250 kg H2 produced/day.
Facilitate the addition of unit operations for use in a demonstration that will use H2 to produce
electricity and fuel vehicles such as buses.
Work with interested parties to extend the applicability of the work to other geographical locations.
Contribute state-of-the-art chemical analysis and process control so that the small-scale systems can be
run with high confidence of safety and reliability.
Accomplishments
Developed gas filtration unit operation that solved the problem of plugging the distribution plate with
entrained char.
Provided technical support of the reformer installation in Blakely, Georgia, where the system was run
for 100 hours.
Filed a provisional patent that incorporates biomass conversion to hydrogen with a co-product of
carbon-based soil amendment system.
Supported partnership development in other areas of the country so that the results can be deployed
when ready.
Future Directions
Develop the Phase 3 system design that will include better heat management in the pyrolyzer and
reformer and will add a condenser, compressor, and pressure swing adsorption (PSA) system to the gas
conditioning system.
Initiate tests necessary to develop a circulating fluidized bed reforming process.
Develop process control systems that will facilitate the cost-effective development of safety
engineering for small-scale biomass-to-hydrogen systems.
Introduction
Approach
A schematic of the system is shown in Figure 2.
Pelletized peanut shells were fed to a cross-draft,
Results
FY 2003 Publications/Presentations
"Renewable hydrogen production by catalytic
steam reforming of peanut shells pyrolysis
products." Robert J. Evans, Esteban Chornet,
Stefan Czernik, Calvin Feik, Richard French,
Steven Phillips, Yaw D. Yeboah, Danny Day,
Shivayam Ellis, Dennis McGee, and Matthew J.
Realff. Preprints, ACS Fuel Chemistry
Symposium, Boston MA, 2002.
Conclusions