Sorption-enhanced reforming of bioethanol in dual fixed bed reactor for continuous hydrogen production

The sorption enhanced reforming (SER) of ethanol over an admixture of CaO sorbent and Ni reforming catalyst has been experimentally studied in a periodically operated dual fixed bed reactor. The optimal parameters for SER process were calculated from thermodynamic data. The experiment was carried out in cyclic mode; temperature swing adsorption and pressure swing adsorption (PSA) modes were used for periodic sorbent regeneration. It was shown that the continuous hydrogen production and the purity of hydrogen during the sorption-catalytic ethanol reforming maintained at the constant level and were 50 L/min and 97-99 vol.% respectively. The dual fixed bed SER reactor worked fine during 2 months on stream and more than 250 cycles. Both the sorbent and the catalyst maintained the sufficient activity during experiment. The obtained results suggest that sorption enhanced reforming may be a perspective approach for hydrogen production in fuel cell powered cogeneration systems.