Low Temperature Hydrogen Production from Biomass Reformation

Ovonic Renewable Hydrogen (ORH) Reforming is a simple one step process to produce high purity hydrogen for use in industrial applications or for high efficiency power generation.  In ORH reforming the hydrogen production pathway is altered with the addition of a base material, such as NaOH, to produce essentially one gas hydrogen (>99.5%) and a solid carbonate salt instead of CO or CO₂ gases produced in conventional steam reforming.  Since the only gas produced in the proprietary ORH process is hydrogen, the reforming process is simplified by eliminating the water gas shift reaction and gas separation making it easier to use the hydrogen in an array of industrial applications. 

The addition of base material to the reaction not only changes the reaction products but also affects the thermodynamics of the reforming reaction by lowering the Gibbs Free energy and the enthalpy.  The improvement in the thermodynamic properties allows ORH to take place at a lower temperature than conventional reforming and with less added heat.  For example, steam reforming of ethanol takes place at 800°C while Ovonic Renewable Hydrogen reforming of ethanol can be conducted at 130°C.  ORH can be applied to a number of biofuels such as ethanol, methanol, ethylene glycol and glycerol.  In addition to liquid fuels ECD has demonstrated the ORH process using raw biomass as a feedstock. Highly pure hydrogen was obtained at reforming temperatures of ~ 260۫°C, significantly lower than the temperatures (800-1000°C) required for biomass gasification and steam reforming.  Wood, grass, cornstalks and waste paper are some of the biomass materials which can be reformed and the results will be reported.  Additionally, basic biomass components in their pure state (cellulose, lignin and hemicellulose) were reformed.  ECD is currently working on a program to produce hydrogen from municipal solid waste; results from this study will be discussed. 

The ORH process offers lower capital and operating cost for hydrogen production compared to steam reformation.  Preliminary cost analysis has found the cost to produce hydrogen in the ORH process to be ~$2-3/kg H₂, which is significantly lower than delivered compressed gas cylinders and in line with the DOE’s hydrogen cost goals.  The presentation will discuss the thermodynamics of the process, test data for various fuel feedstock, reactor configurations, and the economics of hydrogen produced in the ORH process.