Does reduced or non-reduced biomass feed produce more gas in aqueous-phase reforming process?

There has been increasing interest in the production of gaseous and liquid biofuels from biomass. Biomass feed type and its content to be used in the conversion process are very important parameters to produce high yield biofuel. In this study, reduced and non-reduced forms of biomass-derived compound (glucose) and actual biomass hydrolysate feeds were evaluated to produce hydrogen-rich gas mixture by aqueous-phase reforming (APR) in presence of supported Ru catalyst. Various hydrogenation conditions were tested for effective conversion. The results showed that reduced solutions always produced significantly higher gas yield with high hydrogen selectivity. Although biomass hydrolysate was composed of variety of complex compounds, it exhibited significantly better performance compared to glucose, simple biomass model compound.