Thermodynamic analysis of hydrogen production by steam reforming using different raw materials and operational conditions

• Grant number: 11/17289-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: November 01, 2011
• End date: April 30, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Chemical Engineering - Chemical Process Industries
• Principal Investigator: José Vicente Hallak d´Angelo
• Grantee: Aline Stark Rodrigues
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Engenharia Química (FEQ). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Gaseous hydrogen is widely used in chemical industries to obtain important chemicals such as ammonia and methanol. Actually the use of hydrogen as fuel has been studied by many authors. Nevertheless the fact that this gas does not exist in a free form in the nature, which means that it is necessary to be synthetized, is one of the greatest problem for its usage as fuel in large-scale, since the production process of this gas consumes a great quantity of energy. Though studies aiming at the optimization of hydrogen production process, allow an improvement in its scale production. This research project intends to perform a thermodynamic analysis of steam reforming process for hydrogen production using ethanol and glycerol as raw materials, evaluating the influence of reagents composition, reactor operational pressure and temperature over the amount of hydrogen produced, process yield, product composition and the amount of heat necessary for the process. Calculations will be performed using an electronic spreadsheet (Microsoft Office Excel) and also by a process simulator (Aspen Hysys version 7.2) from Aspen Technology. Simulations obtained will be validated by comparison with literature data. Ideal and non-ideal systems will be evaluated. Once these simulations are validated, a sensibility analysis of process variables will be performed. Finally, a simulation of methanol production process will be performed as a possible hydrogen industrial application, expanding optimization studies to this process, considering the influence of the composition of the gas product generated in the reformer. (AU)