Development of nickel based catalyst for the production of renewable hydrogen by autothermal reforming of crude glycerol

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At present, hydrogen (H2) is produced largely from fossil fuels which are not only non-renewable resources but also contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. Alternatively, the conversion of bio-based fuels (e.g. ethanol and glycerol) to H2 has the potential to provide a long term energy supply solution. Among these fuels, glycerol is of particular interest due to its abundance, high energy density, ease to transport, and the possibility to change from an environmental burden to end value product. Crude glycerol from biodiesel production contains impurities such salts, water, alcohol, and free fatty acids. The presence of some of these impurities can cause severe coking and performance decay during the reforming process. The options for gas phase reforming of glycerol to H2 are steam, partial oxidation, and autothermal reforming (ATR). The steam reforming of glycerol has been widely investigated in the literature. However, catalyst deactivation, coking and reduced H2 yield remain a major challenge. Noble metal-based catalysts demonstrate high resistance to coking but are expensive. Ni-based catalysts are cheaper but also exhibit comparable activity with noble metal-based catalysts. Hence, the great interest in the development of a stable Ni-based catalysts for the crude glycerol reforming. Also, it has been reported that adding oxygen and the use of high steam to carbon ratio would minimize char formation. Further, steam reforming of glycerol is endothermic whereas ATR of glycerol is exothermic (i.e. require no external energy input). However, ATR of glycerol over active Ni-based catalysts has not been reported before in the literature. The overall objective of this research is to develop a Ni-based high performance stable catalyst for the efficient production of H2 by the ATR of crude glycerol. This will covert glycerol from a low value byproduct to a valuable H2 production bio-feedstock. Also, the developed catalysts will enable glycerol conversion at lower temperatures implying that cheaper material can be used for construction thereby resulting in much lower capital costs. Overall, this research will enable the widespread production of biodiesel by solving the glycerol glut problem, and improve the economics of biodiesel production.