Renewable Hydrogen from Nonvolatile Fuels by Reactive Flash Volatilization
J. R. Salge,
B. J. Dreyer,
P. J. Dauenhauer,
L. D. Schmidt
Droplets of nonvolatile fuels such as soy oil and glucose-water
solutions can be flash evaporated by catalytic partial oxidation
to produce hydrogen in high yields with a total time in the
reactor of less than 50 milliseconds. Pyrolysis, coupled with
catalytic oxidation of the fuels and their fragments upon impact
with a hot rhodium-cerium catalyst surface, avoids the formation
of deactivating carbon layers on the catalyst. The catalytic
reactions of these products generate approximately 1 megawatt
of heat per square meter, which maintains the catalyst surface
above 800°C at high drop impact rates. At these temperatures,
heavy fuels can be catalytically transformed directly into hydrogen,
carbon monoxide, and other small molecules in very short contact
times without the formation of carbon.
