Producción de hidrógeno a partir de glicerol: Un subproducto del biodiesel mediante el proceso de reformado con vapor.

Abstract

The dependence of humanity on fossil fuels generates big problems towards the environment. Global reserves of fossil fuels are limited, and for some decades technologies that take advantage of alternative sources of energy, such as biomass, have increased significantly. The current production of liquid biofuels is on the increase, highlighting the production of biodiesel that generates significant volumes of glycerol. In the face of the current energy crisis, caused by the depletion of fossil fuels, the problem of producing hydrogen from glycerol through the process of reforming with water vapour is addressed and is intended to contribute to the solution of two problems, provide an alternative energy source for the production of hydrogen as an energy carrier and the cleaning up of the environment. The purpose of this work is to carry out a study to achieve a total glycerol conversion, maximize the selectivity of gas phase products and minimize the conversion to liquid phase. That is, to obtain optimal operating conditions and thus come to describe the chemical reactions that take place in the process.