Production of Hydrogen and Synthetic Hydrocarbon Fuels by Integrated Processing of Biomass and Biogas
In view of diminishing resources of fossil fuels it is imperative to find alternative, preferably, renewable resources for production of energy carriers and transportation fuels. Biomass and biogas are important renewable resources for production of hydrogen and synthetic liquid hydrocarbon fuels (SLHF) as substitutes for the petroleum-based transportation fuels. The resources of biogas (which also include landfill gas and digester gas) are vast and widely available, but remain mostly unused. The objective of this paper is to assess the technical feasibility of integrated processing of biomass (e.g., citrus waste) and biogas to bio-syngas that could further be processed to alternative fuels. The catalytic activity of a number of noble metal and Ni-based catalysts for the reforming process was evaluated. The issues related to the catalysts stability and process sustainability under the conditions that are favorable for carbon deposition are explored in this paper. The resulting bio-syngas could be further processed to hydrogen (via water gas-shift and gas separation stages) or to SLHF (via Fischer-Tropsch synthesis). Thermodynamic equilibrium analysis of model bio-syngas mixtures using AspenPlus chemical process simulator was conducted. An experimental unit for production of hydrogen with the capacity of 1 kW was designed, fabricated and tested. It was concluded that the SLHF could be produced via Fischer-Tropsch synthesis using the bio-syngas obtained by integrated processing of biogas and biomass.