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4045924 
Journal Article 
Hydrogen production from glycerol by reforming in supercritical water over Ru/Al2O3 catalyst 
Byrd, AJ; Pant, KK; Gupta, R 
2008 
1 
Fuel
ISSN: 0016-2361
EISSN: 1873-7153 
Elsevier 
87 
13-14 
2956-2960 
WOS:000257981400014 
Supercritical water is a promising medium for the reforming of hydrocarbons and alcohols for the production of hydrogen at high pressures in a short reaction time. Water serves both as a dense solvent as well as a reactant. In this work, hydrogen is produced from glycerol by supercritical water reforming over a Ru/Al2O3 catalyst with low methane and carbon monoxide formation. Experiments were conducted in a tubular fixed-bed flow reactor over a temperature range of 700-800 degrees C, feed concentrations up to 40 wt% glycerol, all at short reaction time of less than 5 s. Glycerol was completely gasified to hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and methane along with small amounts of carbon monoxide. At dilute feed concentrations, near-theoretical yield of 7 mol of hydrogen/mol of glycerol was obtained, which decreases with an increase in the feed concentration. Based on a kinetic model for glycerol reforming, an activation energy of 55.9 kJ/mol was observed. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 
hydrogen; supercritical water; glycerol; biomass; biodiesel