Editors: | F. Kongoli, M. de Campos, S. Lewis, S. Miller, S. Thomas |
Publisher: | Flogen Star OUTREACH |
Publication Year: | 2019 |
Pages: | 171 pages |
ISBN: | 978-1-989820-12-4 |
ISSN: | 2291-1227 (Metals and Materials Processing in a Clean Environment Series) |
An unintended consequence of the drive towards replacing petro-based sources in the transport sector and the subsequent growth of the biodiesel industry is the co-production of large amounts of crude glycerol (C3H8O3) which constitutes the main by-product of the transesterification process [1-3]. A promising solution is its steam reforming since every mol of C3H8O3 can theoretically produce 7 mol of H2. Thus, research efforts are directed towards the discovery of cheap (i.e., transition metal based), highly active and stable catalysts. In the work presented herein, a series of Ce-La-xCu, (x=3, 5, 7, 10, 20 at.%) catalysts were evaluated for the glycerol steam reforming reaction in the 400-750oC temperature range. Stability tests were conducted at 650oC for 12h. The catalysts were prepared by coupling microwave radiation with the sol-gel method and BET, XRD, Raman, NH3-TPD, CO2-TPD, H2-TPR, SEM, HAADF-STEM and XPS. These were used in order to derive information regarding their textural, morphological and physic-chemical properties to elucidate their effect on catalytic performance. The results obtained show that C3H8O3 conversion of over 85% can be achieved with values for H2 selectivity and approaches the yield of the thermodynamically predicted ones. The liquid effluents produced contained differing amounts of acetol, acetone, acetic acid, acrolein, allyl alcohol and acetaldehyde depending on the reaction temperature. Time-on-stream results, which were undertaken at more severe conditions, showed that all catalysts maintain quite a stable performance.