STUDY ON HYDROGEN PRODUCTION OYF BIO-OIL CATALYTIC REFORMING BY CHARCOAL CATALYST

In this study Charcoal was used as a primary bio-oil steam reforming catalyst. The performance of the catalyst was investigated. The dynamic parameters of the first order dynamic equation were calculated. The stability of charcoal was also examined. The results indicated that first, when reforming temperatures were lower than 700 degrees C, the bio-oil contents in the outlet dry gas were very high. This indicated unsuitability for further catalytic reforming over a metal catalyst. Second, the catalytic activity of charcoal became very significant under high temperature conditions (>= 800 degrees C); thus, the apparent activation energy of the first order kinetic rate constant is 56.98 kJ/mol, and the pre-exponential factor is 1.58 x 10(4) s(-1). Third, the bio-oil contents in the outlet dry gas varied from a decrease to a slight increase in the first 2 h under a catalytic reforming temperature of 900 degrees C, a WHSV (weight hourly space velocity) of 2.6 h(-1), a bio-oil feeding rate of 47.02 g/h, and a S/B (mass steam-to-bio-oil) ratio of 2. Overall, the charcoal exhibited an excellent bio-oil removal rate (conversion > 99.6%) and the bio-oil contents in the outlet dry gas were lower than 1.89 g/Nm(3), hence signifying suitability for further reforming over metal catalysts.