Abstract:
This experimental work involves the investigation of power law type kinetic study of ethanol steam reforming and indirect partial oxidation of propane/n-butane mixture with the purpose of hydrogen production over a bimetallic 0.2wt%Pt-15wt%Ni/?-Al2O3 catalyst. The kinetic investigation of ethanol steam reforming gave reaction orders of 1.18 and -0.18 wrt ethanol and steam, respectively and an activation energy of 39.3 kJ mol-1. IPOX tests were conducted for a hydrocarbon feed of a 1:1 propane/n-butane mixture. The effects of temperature, steam/carbon ratio, carbon/oxygen ratio and residence time were investigated. Hydrogen/carbon monoxide ratio tended to increase with higher steam/carbon, W/FTotal and C/O2 ratios. A decrease in residence time led to a considerable increase in the hydrogen production. The composition that represents LPG fuel in this study, with a propane/n-butane ratio of 1:1, seems to be superior to the previously tested composition, a ratio of 3:1, considering the hydrogen production rate (151 versus 70); and the hydrogen/carbon monoxide ratio (49 versus 46). Optimum activity and selectivity for IPOX of propane/n-butane mixture was obtained with steam/carbon ratio of 7, carbon/oxygen ratio of 2.70 and W/F ratio of 0.51.
