Autothermal Reforming of Renewable Fuels
The conversion of biomass into energy and chemicals is a major research and technology challenge of this century, comparable to petroleum processing in the last century. Recently we have successfully transformed both volatile liquids and nonvolatile liquids and solids into syngas with no carbon formation in autothermal catalytic reactors with residence times of ~10 milliseconds. In the proposed research program we explore the mechanisms of these processes and their extensions to other biomass sources and applications by examining different feeds, catalysts, flow conditions, and steam addition to maximize production of either syngas or chemicals. We will systematically study the catalytic partial oxidation in millisecond autothermal reactors of solid biomass and the liquid products formed by pyrolysis of solid biomass. We will examine alcohols, polyols, esters, solid carbohydrates, and lignocellulose to try to maximize formation of either hydrogen and syngas or olefins and oxygenated chemicals. We will explore molecules and mixtures of practical interest as well as surrogate molecules that contain the functional groups of biofuels but are simpler to analyze and interpret. We will examine spatial profiles within the catalyst and transient and periodic operation of these reactors at pressures up to 10 atm to obtain data from which to explore more detailed mechanistic models and optimize performance to produce a specific desired product. New experiments will examine the conversion of syngas into biofuels such as methanol and dimethyl ether to explore the entire process of producing biofuels from biomass in small distributed systems. Experiments and modeling will be integrated to probe and understand detailed reaction kinetics and the processes by which solid biomass particles are transformed into syngas and chemicals by reactive flash volatilization.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC) Catalysis Science Program
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG02-88ER13878
- OSTI ID:
- 951884
- Report Number(s):
- FG02-88ER13878 CON000000004840
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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